Last night the PSV Sjøborg hit the Statfjord A platform, according to an Equinor press release. The vessel is proceeding to port under her own power, and the platform is being evacuated due to damage to the lifeboat station. If the Sjøborg’s AIS track is anything to go by, the accident happened at midnight, after approximately four hours of station keeping.
Apart from this, not much is publicly known. I for one am curious as to how this might have come about, given the number of safeguards to keep it from happening. Any informed speculation to be had?
The people operating these craft should face it that when a PSV is in close proximity to a platform, collision is a possibility, regardless of what safeguards they think they have in place. I have investigated colllisions between PSVs and the platforms in the past and the usual cause is claimed by those involved to be changing weather conditions, which have taken them by surprise. In this case I note that the ship has DP capability, so probably the system threw its hand in and no-one noticed, or else were incapable of taking avoiding action, using the joystick or the controls.