Pool/NTB Scanpix/via REUTERS
Two crane ships early on Tuesday began raising a submerged Norwegian navy frigate that collided with an oil tanker in November and has been stranded off Norway’s west coast since, Norway’s armed forces said.
The collision with the Malta-flagged tanker Sola TS injured eight people and caused the temporary closure of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway’s top gas processing plant, and several offshore fields.
Read more: Norway has released video from inside the elite warship that sank after getting rammed by a tanker
Raising the Helge Ingstad, one of Norway’s five frigates, is expected to take five to six days and will require calm weather — maximum wave height during the operation cannot exceed a half-meter, or about one and a half feet, the armed forces said.
"The work must be synchronized, so the cranes must be completely stable, next to each other," the armed forces said in a statement. The salvage operation has already been postponed several times due to rough weather.
At the time of the collision the tanker was full and displaced about 113,00 tons — more than an aircraft carrier. The frigate displaces just under 5,300 tons.
Bendik Skogli/Norwegian armed forces
The collision tore a large hole in the starboard side of the frigate’s hull, flooding interior compartments.
Bendik Skogli/Norwegian armed forces
The $400 million, 442-foot-long warship was returning from NATO’s massive, multinational Trident Juncture military exercise when it collided with the 820-foot-long tanker.
NTB Scanpix/Vidar Ruud/via REUTERS
Trident Juncture, the first NATO exercise of its size since the Cold War, also saw other ships get banged up in the rough waters of the Arctic and North Sea.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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SEE ALSO: Norway has released video from inside the elite warship that sank after getting rammed by a tanker
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Christopher Woody)