VIPAN - Grounding on Lerholmen

Summary in English

On 9 November 2023 at 06:00 the passenger ferry VIPAN departed from the Saltholmen ferry terminal in Gothenburg, Västra Götaland county. The trip was to go to Vrångö. On board was only the crew of three people. It was a rainy and windy morning and still dark outside. After leaving the lighted harbor and as the vessel entered the dark fairway, the master found the light from two instruments to his left to be blinding. He began to dim the instruments and at the same time, the ship went off course. At 06:03 the VIPAN ran aground at a speed of just under 16 knots at Lerholmen, only a few hundred meters from the ferry terminal.

No one was injured. The rescue operation was completed at 07:27.

Causes of the accident

The accident was caused by the fact that the risks at the conning station, in terms of the location and ease of use of the various instruments, had not been identified and thus not dealt with. In connection with the handling of the instruments, the master lost attention of the ship´s heading.

An additional reason was that the automatic steering did not provide any clear feedback that alerted the driver when the operating mode switched between automatic and manual steering.

Safety recommendations

The measures taken by the shipping company after the accident are considered sufficient and SHK sees no need to make any recommendations.