A cruise ship Viking Sky drifts towards land after an engine failure in Hustadvika. (Reuters file) The Viking Sky's mayday call came midmorning Saturday just offshore Norway. It followed an engine failure that left the ship stranded in the harsh conditions. Waves topping 60 feet and winds exceeding hurricane strength buffeted the crippled vessel. The storm had the air pressure of a Category 3 hurricane. The storm system that would eventually terrify cruisegoers aboard the Viking Sky didn't come without warning. It didn't materialize out of nowhere. And it didn't develop on a whim. Instead, the sprawling low was hinted at by weather models up to a week in advance. Simulations as early as March 16 indicated a wave of low pressure would rapidly intensify sometime around the weekend of the 23rd and 24th between Iceland and Norway. But it wasn't clear at the time exactly where. It's not unusual to have intense cyclones develop in this part of the world in March. The equinoctial seasons are known for their vicious transitions, oftentimes manifest by violent open-ocean storms. The northeast Atlantic is a notoriously rough patch of maritime real estate in the late winter and early spring, often spinning up gales that can threaten even the most experienced captains. The forecast became much clearer last Wednesday into Thursday, when it appeared obvious that the central coast of Norway would be hard-hit. The Viking Sky departed Bergen, Norway, on March 14, bound for a port-hopping excursion northward up the coast. It would then turn around and hit several cities on its way south, eventually steaming to Tilbury, England, where it was slated to arrive Monday. But Saturday's system was on a crash-course with the Viking Sky's desired path. The ship could have remained docked on Bodo to ride out the storm. Instead, it continued south, becoming stranded and prompting an airlift evacuation. The Viking Sky arrived safely into the port of Molde on Sunday. A significant wave height of 43.6 feet was reported at 4 pm local time Saturday at the Heidrun buoy by weather.us. This reflects just an average of the biggest waves and several may have been taller, even topping 60 feet. Waves are a byproduct of wind, and they take time to build to such impressive heights. Thirty-foot waves occurred for an astonishing 17 consecutive hours at the same station. The winds were extreme, measuring 87 mph over the open ocean and clocking in closer to 70 mph nearest to shore. At Svinoy fyr - 60 miles southwest of where Viking Star is currently docked - winds hit 69 mph. In ordinary circumstances, the Viking Sky can cruise at 20 knots, or 23 mph. That would have been enough time for it to make it back to shore within a half-hour or so, since most of its journey was spent in sight of land. The issue in this case was the engine failure, which could not have been planned for. So while the ship did continue to operate in treacherous weather, it likely was not a conscious decision - unlike Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas' infamous 2018 encounter with a "bomb cyclone." The lack of ability to navigate or turn the ship also left the Viking Sky susceptible to being broadsided by waves. Several large breakers plowed into the ship, smashing windows and shattering glass. Video shows the ship listing to and fro at nearly 20 degrees to the horizontal. That's because the ship's 95-foot width tucked it in between wave crests, exposing the vessel to maximum sideways rocking motion when a wave passed through. The storm system has since dissipated, weakening over the Norwegian and Barents Seas. The incident is set to be probed by the Norwegian Accident Investigations Board.<doc-sep>Stranded passenger that were rescued by helicopter from the cruise ship Viking Sky are pictured on March 23, 2019 on the west coast of Norway near Romsdal. - Emergency services said on March 23, 2019 they were airlifting 1,300 passengers off a cruise ship off the Norwegian coast. Rescue services had airlifted 397 people to safety from a luxury cruise liner with engine trouble off the coast of Norway by Sunday morning and were preparing to tow the vessel to a nearby port. The Viking Sky, with 1,373 passengers and crew on board, sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted towards land in the Norwegian Sea. The ship was carrying 915 passengers, of whom "a large number" were from the United States and Britain, according to the rescue services. Some 17 injured passengers had been taken to hospital, a local rescue coordinator told a news conference early on Sunday, while others suffered minor cuts and bruises. One was taken to St. Olav's Hospital in the town of Trondheim, which is central Norway's most advanced medical facility. Others were taken to local hospitals in the region. "Many have also been traumatised by the experience and need care when they arrive on shore," the Norwegian Red Cross said in a statement. The airlift had gone on through the night. The ship has been able to restart three of its four engines on Sunday morning but still needed assistance. "The evacuation continues at the request of the vessel ... they need tugboats to get to port," rescue service spokesman Per Fjeld said, adding that the plan was to bring the Viking Sky to the town of Molde. Rescue services have begun to attach lines to the ship from tugboats to begin towing it towards the port.<doc-sep>It was supposed to be a cruise vacation of their dreams, a trip to see the magical Northern Lights off Norway. Instead, it sailed into a cruise nightmare. Dead engines. Stranded in frigid, rough seas, beset by a howling storm. In peril of foundering on offshore rocks. Forced to evacuate hundreds of terrified passengers by helicopter in pitch dark. According to one of the crew members of the Viking Sky cruise ship, one of the newest ships of the vaunted luxury line, Viking Ocean Cruises, the last 48 hours on board will not soon be forgotten by any of the 1,373 passengers and crew. "Everything was broken: plates, glasses, furniture," the crew member said, describing scenes in the ship's restaurants and lounges. He said he saw a heavy grand piano go flying upside down inside a lounge. The crew member requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The front of the ship was the most imbalanced, he said, and was most affected by the waves. "You can't even stand up," he said. As a result, some of the passengers and crew couldn't move immediately when the alarms first sounded, signalling the order to move to emergency stations. "It was a nightmare," he said. "People were panicking, everybody was running, some people were crying. People are shocked, you can see it in their faces. They can’t believe they survived." Neither can the crew member, who spoke to USA TODAY by phone from Molde, the port in western Norway where the Viking Sky found safety Monday after being pushed and pulled by tug boats for hours of slow sailing on Sunday. Although he described the crew as well-trained for emergencies, he said he called his family at one point when the Wi-Fi was working "to say goodbye. I was thinking it was going to sink when we listed." To get to the life jackets, he said, crew members had to open doors onto open decks and into the wind and form human chains to distribute the life jackets while the ship was leaning perilously close to the frigid water below. "I can see the ocean, we're on the second floor, and the waves are reaching up to the second floor, like 30 feet. We're at about 45 degrees. You can fall in if you miss a step. I've never experienced this kind of situation before." He said the lifeboats were of no use, apparently because the lack of power meant they could not be moved, and the seas were too rough anyway. After the order to evacuate came, rescuers worked all night Saturday and into Sunday to airlift 479 passengers (about half the total) to shore by a fleet of five helicopters flying in the dark, slowly winching people up one-by-one from the heaving ship as the waves crashed and the winds shrieked. Despite the danger, the crew member said some passengers rushed to be airlifted, fearing the ship would sink before rescue. "Some of the crew are still in shock but most of us feel proud and brave. We managed to take care of the guests and keep control of the situation," the crew member said. "Some of the crew went beyond their duties by going to guests' cabins to get their medicines." All of the passengers and crew members survived, though some passengers were injured in the chaos on board, he said, adding he saw one passenger on a stretcher who has suffered a broken neck. The Associated Press reported one person was in critical condition, and eight others were hospitalized as of Monday morning. Most of the passengers were on their way home Monday, but the crew was still on the ship, trying to clean up the mess as repairs began and investigators arrived to examine what went wrong and why. The ship's next scheduled trip, a cruise to Scandinavia and Germany that was to leave on Wednesday, has been canceled. The crew member said the ship is expected to leave Molde on April 6, but he's not sure yet where it will head. He said the ship's home port is Bergen, Norway on the northwest coast. The crew member, who has worked for Viking for three years and has worked on the Viking Sky since it was launched two years ago, said the cruise to see the Northern Lights was nearing an end when the crisis began on Saturday morning. The ship's four engines began shutting down in the midst of a storm that started late Friday and heaved up waves as high as 50 feet and winds up to 40 mph. As the ship drifted without power, the crew threw out anchors to keep it in place, fearing it would be smashed on treacherous offshore rocks. He said the ship started to list, and the crew rushed to grab life jackets and distribute them to the passengers, some of them elderly. "When the engine died, the ship was listing too much, the old people could not stand by themselves," he said. "We were taking care of the guests, trying to calm them down. We didn't sleep for 48 hours." He said he believes the crew's training was up to the job of dealing with the emergency. "We were well-prepared, we didn’t panic at all, we knew what we were doing," he said. "We trusted the company that we would be saved." He still can't believe it happened, but he's "very, very relieved" it's over. More:After Viking cruise ship rescue, passengers concerned about cruising safety Contributing:The Associated Press<doc-sep>
A cruise ship with engine problems sent a mayday call off Norway's western coast on Saturday as it desperately tried to avoid being grounded on the rocky coast. Rescue workers then launched a high-risk evacuation of the ship's 1,300 passengers and crew, winching them one-by-one up to helicopters as heaving waves tossed the ship from side to side. The Norwegian newspaper VG said the Viking Sky cruise ship ran into propulsion problems as bad weather hit Norway's coastal regions on Saturday and it started drifting toward land. Police in the western county of Moere og Romsdal said the crew, fearing the ship would run aground, managed to anchor in Hustadsvika Bay, between the western 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. Norwegian media reported gusts up to 43 mph and waves over 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 from the cruise ship to the five available helicopters one by one. The cruise ship Viking Sky is seen after sending a mayday signal because of engine failure in windy conditions near Hustadvika, off the west coast of Norway, on Saturday. Odd Roar Lange | NTB scanpix via AP "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." 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. Norwegian media said the majority of the cruise ship passengers were British and American tourists. By 6 p.m., some 100 people had been rescued and were being taken to a nearby sports hall. 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 helicopters to that rescue. Authorities told NRK that a strong storm with high waves was preventing rescue workers from using life boats or other vessels in taking passengers ashore. "It's a demanding exercise, because they (passengers) have to hang in the air under a helicopter and there's a very, very strong wind," witness Odd Roar Lange told NRK at the site. 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 windows and water flowed over the feet of some passengers. According to the cruisemapper.com website, the Viking Sky was on a 12-day trip that began March 14 in the western Norwegian city of Bergen. 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.