Date of occurrence:
S-243/24
ESKIL and BALTIC PRINCESS – near collision outside Stockholm
Summary in English
In the morning of the 4 October 2024, the archipelago passenger vessel ESKIL departed from the jetty Ålstäket for a journey to Strömkajen in the center of Stockholm, calling a number of jetties on the way. A starboard main engine alarm, not possible to reset, caused a decision to go directly to Strömkajen, where technical support would meet. During the passage, the master, who was conning the vessel, and the deck hand tried to silence the alarm, which was continuously repeated. They also worked with restarting the engine, as well as speaking with technical support on the phone. Thus, ESKIL was more and more unintendingly moving to the port side of the fairway.
Just a few minutes after the starboard engine was restarted, BALTIC PRINCESS was discovered almost right ahead of ESKIL. The master speeded up as he turned heavily to starboard, with the ambition to drive himself out of the situation. At this time, the whistle from BALTIC PRINCESS was heard. At the time, there was dense fog.
On its way from Värtahamnen in Stockholm, BALTIC PRINCESS had noted the coming meeting with ESKIL, moving towards the starboard side of BALTIC PRINCESS. BALTIC PRINCESS therefore gave some room for ESKIL by turning a little to port. When realizing that ESKIL turned back to the port side of the fairway (seen from BALTIC PRINCESS) rudder hard to starboard was ordered. ESKIL passed very close to BALTIC PRINCESS stem.
Causes of the accident
The incident occurred due to that the master of ESKIL under protracted time was exposed for an abnormally high work load caused by the recurrent alarms and the lack of knowledge and understanding of the technical systems onboard. Due to the high work load, attention from the navigation was lost, and the vessel drifted unintendingly to port.
Safety recommendations
Since the engine-system manufacturer Yanmar has initiated work to enable differentiated alarms based on their varying levels of criticality, along with the option to silence alarms, SHK refrains from issuing any recommendation in this matter.
Djurgårdens Färjetrafik AB is recommended to:
• ensure that crew members possess the necessary knowledge to manage various situations that may arise. (SHK 2025:15 R1)
Kristina Börjevik Kovaniemi
Jörgen Zachau
Page information
- Last updated:
- 11 July 2025