Ship collision still inconclusive
Still no indictment one year after the Norwegian fishing vessel Fløygrunn was hit and sank by another vessel in the Barents Sea.
“Fløygrunn” was hit in the evening on November 18 last year, and the three fishermen onboard were rescued in last minute before the vessel went down.
- Eastern Finnmark police district got introductorily in the case assistance from Russian authorities in the investigation, in terms of interrogation of the crew onboard the (suspected) vessel, says Eli Nessimo, Deputy Police commissioner to BarentsObserver.
Eli Nessimo explains the one-year period of investigation into the case with the fact that it took long time for the police to get access to unclassified rader-images from the Norwegian Defense. Such images are now in place.
Radar images can tell the tracks of the vessels in the area at the time of collision.
- The investigation into the case is now ended, but according to the rules of the Maritime Safety Act, the matter is sent to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate for comments, says Eli Nessimo.
The police await further steps in the case until the statement from the Maritime Directorate is submitted.
The police in Eastern Finnmark issued a press release the day after the crash, clearly hinting that the other vessel involved in the crash was Russian. The only Russian vessel in the area at the time was the Northern Shipping Company owned “Vladimir Timofeyev.” The captain onboard the Russian vessel ignored to stop for inspection when called by the Norwegian coast guard. He sailed into Russian waters east of the crash site in the Barents Sea and continued towards Arkhangelsk.
- We have good reasons to believe that it was the Arkhangelsk based vessel that was involved in the crash, former chief of police in Eastern Finnmark Håkon Skulstad said to BarentsObserver in January.
The crew on “Vladimir Timofeyev” denied that their vessel was involved in the crash.
Arkhangelsk police met the vessel and interrogated the captain upon arrival at port last November. No traces of collision could be found on the hull of “Vladimir Timofeyev” and the Arkhangelsk police ended the investigation few days after. The shipping company also issued a statement denying involvement of “Vladimir Timofeyev” in the collision. The statement reads that another vessel was nearby the crash site. The vessel “Yutai Ambitions” was in the area according to navigation data from “Vladimir Timofeyev.”
