C7/1997M Passenger Ferry ms SILJA EUROPA and Sailing Yacht sy FLANÖR, Collision in Åland Archipelago on 20.8.1997

Finnish passenger-car ferry ms SILJA EUROPA and German sailing yacht FLANÖR collided on 20.8.1997 at about 14.15 close to the fairway edge mark Rågrund in Aland archipelago. There was dense fog at the time of collision, visibility being about 200 meters.

FLANÖR was on voyage from Sottunga towards Mariehamn with a crew of two. She was approaching Rågrund from Northeast along the fairway and from there the intention was to turn to the fairway leading Northwest. She passed the Rågrund edge mark at a distance of about 25 metres. Soon after a fog signal was heard and the FLANÖR navigator saw on the radar screen a huge echo which was fast approaching.

The FLANÖR navigator gave order to the helmsman to turn FLANÖR 180 degrees to port because she thought that the turn to starboard was not possible due to the closeness of the edge mark. A ship was seen astern during the turn. The navigator ordered more turn to port and an increase of speed. At first it looked like that the ship, which later turned out to be SILJA EUROPA, would pass FLANÖR on the starboard side. When FLANÖR was at the ferry midship she was felt as if to be sucked alongside the ferry. The port side of the SILJA EUROPA and the starboard side of the FLANÖR collided.

At the time of the incident SILJA EUROPA was on the scheduled voyage from Stockholm to Turku. There was no other traffic visible on the ships radar before the accident. The watch officer started the turn round the Rågrund edge mark at 14.13. Suddenly he saw an echo on his radar screen south of the edge mark. The watch officer did plot the echo and after 30 seconds he got the target’s direction and speed on the radar display. The vector displaying direction and speed of the target did show that the target was at collision course at a distance of about two cable lengths (370 meters).

The watch officer changed over to hand steering and turned rudder hard to starboard. After this he saw a sailboat very close at the port side of SILJA EUROPA. First the sailboat disappeared below the bow but after a moment it was seen alongside. By turning the rudder hard to port he did prevent the SILJA EUROPA’s stern to collide with the FLANÖR.

The starboard side of the FLANÖR was damaged and she started to leak. The crew of the FLANÖR sent MAYDAY message, shot emergency rockets, launched the liferaft. and started to pump out the water. SILJA EUROPA stopped immediately and launched her MOB boat. This MOB boat was the first to arrive alongside FLANÖR in six minutes. The Frontier Guards’s helicopter and its boat were alerted and several other ships reported themselves to the rescue op-eration. Alerted rescue units arrived to the scene within 13 minutes.

It was soon observed that there was no danger of sinking. The crew of the FLANÖR was taken on board the Frontier Guard’s boat which then started to tow the FLANÖR to Degerby.

C7/1997M Report (pdf, 0.87 Mt)