Finnish Maritime Administration orders new Suomenlinna ferry out of service
Electrical fault rendered ill-fated vessel unmanageable for the third time
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The Finnish Maritime Administration has ordered a ban on the use of the new Suomenlinna II ferry, until the cause of the ferry's persistent electrical faults has been ascertained. The vessel must not be moved without assistance from a tugboat, even when it is empty.
The Finnish Maritime Administration reached the decision on Thursday when an unknown fault caused a power failure that rendered the ferry rudderless and out of control for the third time in just over a month.
The defect emerged on Thursday morning when the ferry was just one hundred metres off the pier at the fortress island of Suomenlinna. For a few minutes the vessel drifted out of control, until it was taken in tow and assisted in docking by a Coast Guard vessel at 11.36.
No harm came to any of the ferry's 92 passengers.
"We saw that for the safety of the passengers and the environment, it is better to keep the ferry out of service until the cause of its problems has been unravelled", explains Senior Maritime Inspector Juha-Matti Korsi of the Finnish Maritime Administration.
"We have to get to the root of the problem. To simply fix the latest fault is not enough. There are too many vessels sailing in the Helsinki harbour area. The risk of collision is evident should Suomenlinna II lose its manoeuvrability again", Korsi reasons.
Managing director Jorma Salopelto of Suomenlinnan Liikenne Oy, the public utility company responsible for running a scheduled ferry service between the Helsinki city centre and the island of Suomenlinna, cannot say when the ferry might return to regular scheduled use.
Once all the faults have been repaired the ban can be lifted quickly, but electrical problems are often hard to track down.
The Suomenlinna II nearly got banned already at the beginning of July, when an unexplained electrical fault first occurred. In subsequent tests, the fault could not be reproduced and the ferry was allowed to continue carrying passengers to and from Suomenlinna, nowadays a popular tourist attraction off the Helsinki shoreline.
For now, Suomenlinna II/ has been replaced by the waterbus Amiraali.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 13.8.2004 - TODAY |
 Finnish Maritime Administration orders new Suomenlinna ferry out of service |
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