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Life Saving Equipment News

26 Feb 2024

Helsinghof to Take the Helm at Viking in June

Henrik Helsinghof will return to VIKING as CEO in June 2024. Image courtesy Viking Life-Saving Equipment

Viking Life-Saving Equipment A/S appointed Henrik Helsinghof as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective from June 1, 2024.The appointment follows the death of former CEO Henrik Uhd Christensen in January following a short illness. Helsinghof had previously been identified by Christensen and the VIKING Board of Directors as a possible successor.Helsinghof began his career in VIKING in 2006 as student assistant and remained with the company for 14 years, holding various positions, including Managing Director of VIKING Nadiro.

09 Jan 2024

Viking Strengthens Marine Evacuation Portfolio with Undertun Acquisition

(Credit: Viking Life-Saving Equipment)

Danish maritime safety solutions company Viking Life-Saving Equipment has acquired rights to manufacture and supply Undertun marine evacuation systems (MES).The Viking acquisition has been agreed with Sverre Undertun, whose Norway-based company offers solutions which include its well-known Undertun ship gangways.The solution is suitable for the small ferry market due to its easy installation and use.Catering for up to 150 persons, Undertun MES are especially convenient when installation heights and crew numbers are low…

22 Nov 2023

VIKING Launches Innovative Space-saving Lifeboats

Credit: VIKING Life-Saving Equipment

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment, said Wednesday it was launching an innovative range of lifeboats and davits which set new standards for compact and lightweight lifeboat-based evacuation solutions. "By challenging traditional lifeboat design, the 40- and 52-person VIKING Norsafe Totally Enclosed Lifeboats (TELB) respond to a rising tide of industry demand for space- and weight-saving boats for typical crew capacities," VIKING Life-Saving Equipment said."Major shipbuilding clients…

30 Aug 2023

VIKING Wins Large Hellenic Coastguard Patrol Boat Order

(Image: VIKING)

VIKING Norsafe Life-saving Equipment HELLAS has secured orders from Greece’s Ministry of Shipping & Island Policy to deliver 31 patrol boats and three high-speed boats to the Hellenic Coast Guard. The orders, covered in three separate contracts with the VIKING Life-saving Equipment subsidiary, are part of an EU-backed Hellenic Coast Guard procurement program which was initiated four years ago.Two of the contracts cover 31 boats based on VIKING Norsafe’s proven Munin S1200 hull form, with the design adapted to meet client requirements.

15 Aug 2023

Rescuers Find Four Australian Surfers Missing off Indonesian Coast

© William / Adobe Stock

Four Australian surfers have been found alive after their boat went missing in bad weather off the east coast of Indonesia's Aceh province on Sunday, however at least one of three Indonesian crew members is believed to still be missing.The seven were aboard a 10-metre (30 foot) wooden vessel travelling from Nias Island to Aceh province's Banyak Islands when they were separated from a second vessel during bad weather around 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to Indonesia's national rescue agency.All four surfers had been found safe…

14 Jul 2023

Italy Impounds Migrant Charity's Rescue Vessel

(Photo: Anthony Jean / SOS Mediterranee)

Italian authorities said on Wednesday they had impounded a ship involved in migrant rescue operations in the central Mediterranean Sea, citing safety procedure irregularities.Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government, installed last year, Italy has taken a tougher stance towards migrant rescue NGOs, accusing them of facilitating the work of people traffickers.The Ocean Viking ship was seized while docked in the port of Civitavecchia, northwest of Rome on the Mediterranean coast."In particular, some of the crew did not possess the necessary licenses to handle the life-saving e

23 Feb 2023

UK Fines Svitzer $2.4 Million Over Crewman Fatality

A.P. Moller - Maersk's towage arm Svitzer has been fined £2 million ($2.4 million) in the U.K. after pleaded guilty to safely failures that led to a crewmember fatality.Svitzer Marine Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to operate a vessel safely and failing to provide a safe system of work, causing the “avoidable tragedy” of 62-year-old Ian Webb falling into the water, the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced.Heard at Liverpool Crown Court on February 20, the tragic death sparked an investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) which identified a number of Svitzer’s safety failures.On the evening of Webb’s death, January 27, 2019, Svitzer Marine’s tug Millgarth was cast off from the Tranmere north jetty, in the river Mersey, in storm force conditions.

30 Nov 2022

3-Year Deal: Survitec to Maintain Life Saving Equipment on Valaris' Offshore Rigs

©Survitec

Offshore drilling operator Valaris has extended its service agreement with Survitec, a provider of survival technology solutions, for another three years.The master service and supply contract, originally signed in 2016, covers the annual and five-year inspection, servicing, and maintenance of LSA, including lifeboats, davits, and fast rescue crafts across Valaris’ global fleet of 11 drill ships, 5 semi-submersibles and 36 jack-up rigs.Survitec said:"An extensive network of more…

07 Nov 2022

Tech File: VIKING Norsafe E-Mako-655, the All-electric Rescue Boat

Image credit: Sønnavind drone and boligfoto

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment and maritime electric motor systems developer Evoy launched an electrically powered 6.55m rescue boat, the VIKING Norsafe E-Mako-655. The Mako-655 is an existing rescue boat design that, up until now, has only been offered with traditional engine propulsion due to the current IMO/SOLAS regulation which states that rescue boats of this type must have at least one internal combustion engine.VIKING Norsafe and Evoy are challenging what they call a "somewhat…

05 Oct 2022

CMA CGM Inks Deal for Fleetwide Adoption of HydroPen Firefighting Tool

Image courtesy Viking

Viking Life-Saving Equipment secured a major order for its container fire-fighting tool HydroPen, following a decision by the CMA CGM Group to adopt the solution across its entire fleet.In 2020, CMA CGM ordered HydroPen sets to equip its larger containerships. The latest order means that CMA CGM will use the system on over 270 ships.HydroPen is attached to the deck hose as a combined drill and spray unit which penetrates the door of the box before extinguishing the fire at source.

02 Sep 2022

London Fire Brigade Adds Two New Fireboats

(Photo: London Fire Brigade)

The London Fire Brigade has added a pair of new fireboats on the Thames as part of a £40 million investment made by City Hall to expand the Brigade’s fleet of equipment and vehicles.The new 16.2-meter-long boats, Tanner and Errington, are named after Auxiliary Fireman Harry Errington and Auxiliary Firewoman Gillian Tanner, who in the Second World War were both awarded medals for bravery. The call signs for the boats are H23A and H23B, a reference to Adam Mere and Billy Faust, two London firefighters who died fighting a fire in 2004.Built by Holyhead Marine…

16 Aug 2022

Tech File: Containership Major Adopts Container FiFi System Fleetwide

Image courtesy Viking Life-Saving Equipment

A.P. Moller - Maersk will equip its fleet with the HydroPen firefighting system from Viking Life-Saving Equipment.With fires inside containers on fully laden containerships remaining a major security risk for the industry, A.P. Moller - Maersk has opted to adopt HydroPen, which is designed for direct firefighting in stacked shipping containers onboard commercial vessels. The contract represents the single largest HydroPen order for VIKING Life-Saving Equipment - and will see systems delivered for the entire fleet of A.P.

19 Jan 2022

Tech File: Yara Birkeland Equipped with Survitec Fire Fighting System

(Photo: Survitec)

Survitec’s advanced fire fighting system and safety equipment aboard Yara Birkeland – the world’s first fully autonomous containership – has successfully completed its first annual service ahead of the 3200dwt ship’s first laden voyage.The zero-emission, fully electric Yara Birkeland is preparing to carry its first fertilizer cargo on the Herøya-Brevik route in early 2022.The groundbreaking vessel, which deployed on its maiden manned voyage in November, operates a unique, automatic…

15 Dec 2021

Fishing Vessel Fire and Sinking Caused by Deteriorated Wiring

​​​​The Lucky Angel pierside at Bayou La Batre, Alabama, before the accident​. (Photo: Julian Price)

A fishing vessel fire and sinking off the coast of Mississippi was likely cause by deteriorated wiring on board, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined.The Lucky Angel was trawling for shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico when a fire broke out in the vessel’s engine room on December 10, 2020. The three crewmembers attempted to fight the fire but were forced to abandon the vessel. They were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard. The vessel sank two days later. No pollution was reported. There was one minor injury.

06 May 2021

Viking Launches Lightweight Immersion Suit for Offshore Crew Transfer

Credit: Viking

Viking Life-Saving Equipment has launched a new Walk-to-Work crew transfer suit that the company says overcomes a cumbersome feature of offshore wind turbine maintenance procedures without compromising safety."The new Viking YouSafe Walk to Work is a one-size immersion suit airtight packed into a bag that is attached to the user’s lifejacket instead of being worn during the transfer between support vessels and offshore installations. Sealed in a protective bag, the lightweight immersion suit has been developed in cooperation with leading offshore wind and Oil & Gas operators…

05 May 2021

Maritime Safety: Viking Aquires HydroPen Container FiFi System

Image courtesy Viking

Viking Life-Saving Equipment has acquired HydroPen, the company behind the unique HydroPen container firefighting solution. HydroPen, attached to a ship’s hose and raised on a telescopic arm by a single crew member, uses water pressure alone to power its ‘drill and spray’ nozzle to penetrate a container door before switching to spray mode to extinguish a fire with water, foam or CO2 – directly at its source.HydroPen was founded in 2016 by Martin Winkel, CEO and Jesper Rosenfeldt Hansen…

27 Apr 2021

CMA CGM Adopts Container Firefighting System

(Photo: VIKING Life-Saving Equipment)

French shipping company CMA CGM has tapped VIKING Life-Saving Equipment to supply the HydroPen drilling and spraying solution for container firefighting duties on board 85 of its vessels.Where conventional firefighting solutions dowse containers on the outside, the HydroPen is attached to a standard hose as a combined drill and spray unit that penetrates the container door before extinguishing the fire with water, foam or CO2. Useable on or below deck, a crew member can operate…

26 Apr 2021

VIKING Introduces Turbine Evacuation Kit

VIKING YouSafe Hightide suit (Photo: VIKING)

Quickly growing turbine numbers, installed in deeper waters offshore and farther out to sea are needed to serve accelerating demand for wind energy, but safety issues for such structures go beyond the feats of civil engineering making them possible.Supervised remotely, all of these offshore assets nonetheless need periodic physical inspection and maintenance, with the engineers landing on remote platforms either from helicopters or via gangways connecting to vessels in motion.

09 Dec 2020

Top Maritime Trends of 2020: Tackling the Scourge of Containership Fires

“One troubling statistic is that on average there is a fire onboard a container ship every week, with a major container fire occurring on average every 60 days.” (Photo: Indian Coast Guard)

The proliferation of serious fires onboard container ships in recent years has shocked the shipping industry. Here we examine the causes and impact of such fires and the urgent efforts being made by a wide variety of stakeholders to solve this seemingly intractable problem.Over the last decade there has been a 70% fall in ship total losses[1]. This has been widely credited to long term improvements in ship safety management and loss prevention programs. Counter to this trend, there has been a substantial increase in the number of fires in containers carried onboard container and RoRo ships.

13 Aug 2020

VIKING Delivers Ambulance Boat for the Hellenic Coastguard

(Photo: VIKING)

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has delivered the first vessel in a series of three new ambulance boats for the Hellenic Coastguard.For many years, the Coastguard and the Hellenic National Center for Emergency Care (EKAB) have worked together to support patient transfer requirements from the Greek islands to larger hospitals. Today, a call for transport services is almost a daily occurrence.The new closed-cabin boat will be station in Naxos as the first in a series of special craft equipped with medical equipment.

24 Jul 2020

VIKING Wins Greek Patrol Boat Order

A similar type and spec of the VIKING Norsafe Munin S1200 Open that will be delivered to the Hellenic Army Special Forces (Photo: VIKING)

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment reports it has won a tender to supply the Hellenic Army Special Forces with its Munin S1200 daughter craft, continuing a series of agreements that support patrol, defense and search and rescue capability of Hellenic seaborne forcesDesigned to operate for extended periods of time away from land or its mother ship, the 12m length by 3.5m deep-V hull boat will support Special Forces in tactical maneuvers, patrol and search and rescue operations. The Munin…

22 Apr 2020

Viking RIBs for Greek Navy

VIKING Norsafe Metis RIB 1

Danish company  Viking Life-Saving Equipment has won an order for eleven METIS Rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) from the Greek Navy.The new RIBs will be deployed mainly to support search and rescue operations on delivery over the summer of 2020. They will replace craft currently used onboard larger vessels in the Hellenic Navy’s fleet, including its ΜΕΚΟ-type frigates.John Georgiadis Managing Director, VIKING Norsafe Life-Saving Equipment Hellas said his company won the deal against…

18 Mar 2020

Survitec Names Krisanda Executive Chairman

Survitec appointed Ron Krisanda as Executive Chairman.

Survitec appointed Ron Krisanda as Executive Chairman for its worldwide life-saving equipment business. In this newly created role, he will lead both the Survitec Board of Directors and the Executive Management Team.Krisanda's business experience includes roles as Chairman, President, CEO and COO across various global manufacturing and service businesses. Most recently, he was CEO of Quality Metalcraft - Experi-Metal, Inc. He has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2015 and will continue in this role.