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WORLD NEWS Monday 25 March 2019

Terror at sea: Helicopter rescues

frightened cruise passengers

By MARK LEWIS and JARI An experienced fisherman, start praying for everyone
TANNER Horgen said he had never on the ship.
Associated Press before encountered such “I was afraid. I’ve never
STAVANGER, Norway rough boating conditions. experienced anything so
(AP) — Rodney Horgen “I did not have a lot of scary,” she said.
recalled the moment he hope. I knew how cold that “We saw two people taken
thought he was facing the water was and where we off by stretcher,” passenger
end: when a huge wave were and the waves and Dereck Brown told Norwe-
crashed through the Viking everything. You would not gian newspaper Romsdal Passengers are helped from a rescue helicopter in Fraena,
Sky cruise ship’s glass doors last very long,” he said. Budstikke. “People were Norway, Sunday March 24, 2019, after being rescued from the
and swept his wife 30 feet “That was very, very fright- alarmed. Many were fright- Viking Sky cruise ship.
across the floor. ening.” And yet, the scari- ened but they were calm.” Associated Press
Horgen, 62, of Minnesota, est part was yet to come. Viking Ocean Cruises, the
was visiting Norway on a That was when hundreds of company that owns and
dream pilgrimage to his passengers, including Hor- operates the ship, said 20
ancestral homeland when gen, were winched off the people were injured and
the luxury cruise quickly heaving ship by helicop- received treatment at
turned into a nightmare. ter, one-by-one as winds medical centers.
The Viking Sky was carry- howled around them in The airlift evacuation went
ing 1,373 passengers and the dark of night, by rescue all through the night and
crew, going from Norway’s workers trying to evacuate into Sunday morning, slow-
Arctic north to the southern everyone on board. ing for a bit when two of
city of Stavanger when it Waves up to 26-feet- (8-me- the five rescue helicopters
had engine trouble along ters-) high were smacking had to be diverted to save
Norway’s rough, frigid into the ship, making it im- nine crewmembers from a
western coast. Struggling in possible to evacuate any- nearby ailing cargo ship.
heavy seas to avoid being one by boat. Einar Knudsen of Norway’s
dashed on the rocky coast, The ship was within 100 Joint Rescue Coordination
the ship issued a mayday meters (300 feet) of strik- Center said the airlift was
call Saturday afternoon. ing rocks under the wa- halted when the captain
Horgan said he knew some- ter and 900 meters (2,950 decided before noon Sun-
thing was badly amiss when feet) from shore when it day to try to bring the cruise
the guests on the heaving stopped and anchored in ship to the nearby port of
ship were summoned to Hustadvika Bay so passen- Molde on its own engines.
the vessel’s muster points. gers could be evacuated, “The conditions were good
“When the windows and Coast Guard official Emil enough for the captain to
door flew open and the Heggelund told Norway’s have no more evacua-
2 meters (6 feet) of wa- VG newspaper. tions,” Knudsen told the AP.
ter swept people and Norway’s Joint Rescue Co- Three of the ship’s four en-
tables 20 to 30 feet that ordination Center stepped gines were working so a tug
was the breaker. I said to in, sending in five helicop- boat and two other vessels
myself, ‘This is it,’” Horgen ters. Passenger Alexus assisted the Viking Sky as
told The Associated Press. Sheppard told the AP that it slowly headed to Molde
“I grabbed my wife but people with injuries or dis- under its own power. It fi-
I couldn’t hold on. And abilities were winched off nally docked at the port
she was thrown across the the cruise ship first. late Sunday afternoon, the
room. And then she got “It was frightening at first. cruise company said.
thrown back again by the And when the general The Viking Oceans Cruise
wave coming back.” alarm sounded it became company said the ship’s
Photos posted on social VERY real,” she wrote in a next scheduled trip, to
media showed the ship list- text. Scandinavia and Ger-
ing from side to side and Janet Jacob, among the many that was to leave
furniture smashing violently first group of passengers on Wednesday, was can-
into the ship’s walls. The evacuated to the nearby celled. Norway’s Accident
hands and faces of fellow town of Molde, told Norwe- Investigations Board said
passengers were cut and gian broadcaster NRK that the ship would remain
bleeding from the shat- the winds felt “like a torna- in Molde, pending an
tered glass, he said. do” and prompted her to investigation.q