Passagiers glijden over dek van gestrand schip bij Noorwegen
Storm en wind
Passagiers glijden over dek van gestrand schip bij Noorwegen
Passagiers glijden over dek van gestrand schip bij Noorwegen
Een cruiseschip strandde zaterdag door hevige storm voor de kust van Noorwegen. Volgens Noorse media zijn meer dan driehonderd passagiers met helikopters geëvacueerd. Zeventien mensen zijn naar het ziekenhuis gebracht. Drie van hen zouden er ernstig aan toe zijn.
Bron: www.nu.nl
1300 passagiers moeten geëvacueerd worden.
Helicopters rescue Norway cruise ship passengers amid storm
HELSINKI (AP) — Rescue workers off Norway’s western coast rushed to evacuate 1,300 passengers and crew from a disabled cruise ship by helicopter on Saturday, winching them one-by-one to safety as heaving waves tossed the ship from side to side and high winds battered the operation.The Viking Sky issued a mayday call as bad weather hit and engine problems caused it to start drifting toward the rocky shore, the Norwegian newspaper VG reported. Police in the western county of Moere og Romsdal said the crew, fearing the ship would run aground, managed to anchor in Hustadvika Bay, between the Norwegian cities of Alesund and Trondheim, so the evacuations could take place.
Rescue teams with helicopters and boats were sent to evacuate the cruise ship under extremely difficult circumstances, including gusts up to 38 knots (43 mph) and waves over 8 meters (26 feet). The area is known for its rough, frigid waters.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said the Viking Sky’s evacuation was a slow and dangerous process, as passengers needed to be hoisted one-by-one from the cruise ship to the five available helicopters.
“I was afraid. I’ve never experienced anything so scary,” Janet Jacob, among the first group of passengers evacuated to the nearby town of Molde, told NRK.
She said her helicopter ride to safety came amid strong winds “like a tornado,” prompting her to pray “for the safety of all aboard.”
The majority of the cruise ship passengers were reportedly British and American tourists. About 180 have been evacuated so far, according to rescue officials.
Per Fjeld of the Joint Rescue Center Southern Norway said there is no danger to the remaining passengers and the airlift can accommodate all of them. He said the rescue will speed up when there is better light and the weather improves.
Video and photos from people on the ship showed it heaving, with chairs and other furniture dangerously rolling from side to side. Passengers were suited up in orange life vests but the waves broke some ship windows and cold water flowed over the feet of some passengers.
American passenger John Curry told NRK that he was having lunch as the cruise ship started to shake.
“It was just chaos. The helicopter ride from the ship to shore I would rather not think about. It wasn’t nice,” Curry told the broadcaster.
NRK said one 90-year-old-man and his 70-year-old spouse on the ship were severely injured but did not say how that happened.
Later, reports emerged that a cargo ship with nine crew members was in trouble nearby, and the local Norwegian rescue service diverted two of the five helicopters working on the cruise ship to that rescue.
Authorities told NRK that a strong storm with high waves was preventing rescue workers from using life boats or tug boats to take passengers ashore.
Fjeld said rescuers were prioritizing the nine crew members aboard the Hagland Captain cargo ship, but later said they had all been rescued and the helicopters had returned to help the Viking Sky.
He said that with two more of the Viking Sky’s engines now in operation there is the possibility of sailing, though he would not say whether there is an intention of sailing to shore.
Norwegian authorities said late Saturday that the evacuation of the Viking Sky would proceed all through the night into Sunday.
The Viking Sky was on a 12-day trip that began March 14 in the western Norwegian city of Bergen, according to the cruisemapper.com website.
The ship was visiting the Norwegian towns and cities of Narvik, Alta, Tromso, Bodo and Stavanger before its scheduled arrival Tuesday in the British port of Tilbury on the River Thames.
The Viking Sky, a vessel with gross tonnage of 47,800, was delivered in 2017 to operator Viking Ocean Cruises
Bron: apnews.com
The Latest: All Viking Sky passengers, crew safe; ship docks.
Uiteindelijk waren er 475 mensen per helicopter van het schip gehaald.STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — The Latest on the Viking Sky cruise ship that was stranded off the coast of Norway (all times local):
8:40 p.m.
The Viking Ocean Cruises company says all the passengers and crew of its Viking Sky cruise ship are safe, the ship has docked in the western Norwegian port of Molde and passengers are flying home as soon as possible.
The cruise ship line said the next scheduled trip for the boat, a visit to Scandinavia and Germany that was to leave on Wednesday, has been cancelled. It said it did not anticipate any further cancellations to the ship’s schedule.
The company thanked both Norwegian rescue services and residents for helping the Viking Sky’s passengers and crew under such difficult circumstances.
The cruise ship issued a mayday call on Saturday afternoon as it had engine problems and feared it would be dashed against the rocks in a storm off the coast of Norway. Rescuers worked all night and into Sunday to airlift half of its passengers, 479 people, to shore by helicopter before the ship was able to slowly make it way to Molde on Sunday.
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4:25 p.m.
Accompanied by tug boats, the Viking Sky cruise ship has limped into the Norwegian port of Molde more than a day after issuing a mayday call in a storm that led to harrowing helicopter rescues of half of its passengers.
The Viking Sky carried 1,373 passengers and crew when it had engine trouble Saturday afternoon off the western coast of Norway. Afraid of dashing up on the rocks, it anchored amid heavy seas and high winds and began to evacuate everyone on board.
Amid wind gusts up to 38 knots (43 mph) and waves over 8 meters (26 feet), five helicopters flying in the pitch dark evacuated passengers from the heaving ship throughout the night into Sunday morning. Over 475 passengers were airlifted one-by-one off the ship.
As weather eased, a decision was made to halt the rescues and head to Molde, which it reached about 1530 GMT (11:30 a.m. EST) Sunday.
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12:50 p.m.
The chairman of the company that operates a cruise ship that got stranded off Norway’s western coast in bad weather Saturday praised the rescue operation by Norwegian authorities and the actions of the vessel’s crew.
Viking Ocean Cruises chairman Torstein Hagen told Norway’s VG newspaper that the events surrounding the Viking Sky were “some of the worst I have been involved in, but now it looks like it’s going well in the end and that we’ve been lucky.”
The company said in a statement that before the ship started being towed to the port of Molde on Sunday, 479 passengers had been airlifted to land by helicopters, leaving 436 passengers and 458 crew members onboard.
A tug boat and two other vessels are assisting the Viking Sky travel from the bay where it managed to anchor to land.
Hagen, a shipping tycoon who is one of Norway’s richest men, said: “I am very proud of our crew.”
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11:35 a.m.
The air evacuation of passengers on a stranded cruise ship in Norway has been suspended so the vessel can be towed to a nearby port.
The Viking Sky carried 1,373 passengers and crew members when it had engine trouble in an unpredictable area of the Norwegian coast known for rough, frigid waters. The crew issued a mayday call Saturday afternoon.
Five helicopters flying in the pitch dark evacuated passengers from the tossing ship throughout the night and continued the airlifts at a steady pace Sunday morning.
The rescues took place under difficult conditions that included wind gusts up to 38 knots (43 mph) and waves over 8 meters (26 feet).
Some 17 people were hospitalized with injuries, police said.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Center said the helicopters had taken 463 passengers to safety by the time it was ready to be towed to shore by two tug boats.
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9:50 a.m.
Rescue workers are evacuating more passengers from a cruise ship that had engine problems in bad weather off Norway’s western coast while authorities prepare to tow the vessel to a nearby port.
Norway’s Joint Rescue Center said 379 of the 1,373 passengers and crew members on the Viking Sky had been taken off the ship one-by-one and airlifted to shore as of Sunday morning.
The rescue center says three of the ship’s four engines are working now and will help power the boat while it’s towed to Molde. The helicopter evacuations will continue in the meantime.
The Viking Sky ran into trouble Saturday afternoon in an unpredictable area of the Norwegian coast known for rough, frigid waters. Police said the crew, fearing the ship would run aground, managed to anchor in Hustadvika Bay so the evacuations could take place.
More than 450 passengers were airlifted off a cruise ship that got stranded off Norway’s western coast in bad weather before the rescue operation was suspended Sunday so the vessel could be towed to a nearby port.
Bron: apnews.com
Norwegian Red Cross treat cruise ship passengers at evacuation center #Vikingsky https://t.co/9A3NvliTxO pic.twitter.com/i3NWOfsPXT
— EBU Social Newswire (@evnsocial) 25 maart 2019
#Breaking: Just in - Out of an recent video on the #VikingSky Cruise Ship, shows that the ship also has taken in some water from the waves pounding on the ship in #Norway! There are now over 885 people aboard the ship. Video Credit: @oxman78 pic.twitter.com/jSGXNskEvm
— Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁ (@sotiridi) 23 maart 2019
#vikingsky safely at port in Molde pic.twitter.com/zbEW0pQHcU
— Sigurd Mjelve (@Sigmje) 24 maart 2019
We got more details from @CHCHelicopter on the incredible airlift operation that evacuated 479 passengers from the #VikingSky cruise ship: https://t.co/kPk2lb4bEu pic.twitter.com/Ihb2LDOHzA
— Vertical Magazine (@verticalmag) 24 maart 2019
Video of elderly passengers being airlifted by helicopter from #VikingSky yesterday. (from https://t.co/KYzW8vB3YQ) pic.twitter.com/b9OP5owgIj
— L.O.M.P.E. (@Lompemann) 25 maart 2019
“The ship ???? was 45-degrees up in the water!” Susan and Allan Dollberg from Novato told me via FaceTime about their helicopter ???? rescue after the #VikingSky’s engines failed in stormy waters. #Norway pic.twitter.com/IbEK4W4rOX
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) 25 maart 2019
De #VikingSky in veilige haven. BZ hulpdiensten.
— De Ziekenpa (@DeZiekenpa) 24 maart 2019
pic.twitter.com/YaGHhNAgx2
Ondertussen op de #VikingSky. Het schip vaart op eigen kracht weg van de kust. Mogelijk richting een geschikte haven. sleepboot stand-by. pic.twitter.com/PrFDd7oCAy
— De Ziekenpa (@DeZiekenpa) 24 maart 2019
Bijna niet te bevatten dat je de schepen en helicopters betrokken bij de reddingsactie van #VikingSky live kunt volgen via een trackersite. Hopelijk zijn ze snel in rustiger vaarwater! pic.twitter.com/OVeCs7V88u
— Els Edes (@elsedes_) 24 maart 2019
Beelden van het vrachtschip in nood in de buurt van #VikingSky
— De Ziekenpa (@DeZiekenpa) 23 maart 2019
pic.twitter.com/bfhlIbZcje
