Cruise ship in trouble off Norway

Stemar said:
Glad nearly everyone seems to be Ok & hope the injured make a full recovery.

Two genuine questions:

1. The storm seems to have been well forecast, so what was a cruise ship doing out there in a notoriously nasty bit of water? Even without engine problems, 10 meter waves must be likely to cause some injuries amongst the passengers, especially as there are likely to have been a goodly number of elderly folk on board.

2. Two ships in bad conditions suffer engine failure: Coincidence, a problem with engine design or something else?
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Keeping to the schedule!
 
JumbleDuck said:
I'm interested to know why they were airlifting passengers off a ship which had three out of four engines running and was heading off with a tug standing by. Helicopters are expensive so I presume it wasn't for fun.
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The first report I saw said it was down to one engine just 2 miles off a rocky lee shore and they had anchored. I imagine the crew were about as worried for the lives of all on board as any mariner ever is. That sounds like half an hour from the marine disaster of the century if it had gone ashore in the conditions shown in the photo.
Bloody lucky, I'd say. What a job, trying to hoist 1400 people two at a time by winch! What can a Puma hold when it has to? Probably 15. Then 5 minutes per lift, two at a time. 40 mins per load, 15 mins transit time there and back. Give or take an hour per load.

Looks to me in the order of 90 hours helo time based on that guesstimate. Two cabs, two whole days non stop. Not a very effective means of emergency evacuation, is it? And that's assuming two cabs can even operate simultaneously over the ship.

Imagine something catastrophic happening to one of the big ones out in the open ocean, 5000 on board...a fire perhaps. What sort of rescue vessel can even carry numbers like that as deck cargo? Let alone get them on board in the first place, or even give them all water for a day or two.
Doesn't bear thinking about, but it's gonna happen one day, sure as eggs is eggs.

I must think of soemthing more cheerful, sun's shining!
 
Old Bumbulum said:
The first report I saw said it was down to one engine just 2 miles off a rocky lee shore and they had anchored. I imagine the crew were about as worried for the lives of all on board as any mariner ever is. That sounds like half an hour from the marine disaster of the century if it had gone ashore in the conditions shown in the photo.
Bloody lucky, I'd say. What a job, trying to hoist 1400 people two at a time by winch! What can a Puma hold when it has to? Probably 15. Then 5 minutes per lift, two at a time. 40 mins per load, 15 mins transit time there and back. Give or take an hour per load.

Looks to me in the order of 90 hours helo time based on that guesstimate. Two cabs, two whole days non stop. Not a very effective means of emergency evacuation, is it? And that's assuming two cabs can even operate simultaneously over the ship.

Imagine something catastrophic happening to one of the big ones out in the open ocean, 5000 on board...a fire perhaps. What sort of rescue vessel can even carry numbers like that as deck cargo? Let alone get them on board in the first place, or even give them all water for a day or two.
Doesn't bear thinking about, but it's gonna happen one day, sure as eggs is eggs.

I must think of soemthing more cheerful, sun's shining!
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Im surprised that the helicopter lift didn't have any casualties. I guess the wind was less of a factor than I (a lay person) would have though in terms of affecting the ability of the helicopter to winch people from the boat. Apparently it was blowing at 38 kts.

Helicopter lift vs. keeping everyone on board. A case of throwing lots of dice many times, vs. throwing one big dice once. A case of mitigating the risk as much as possible, and not putting all your eggs in one basket. I don't think the public realise just how close it was to been to a real catastrophe.

If this was in open sea, you wouldn't be worried about a lee shore, so they would have just sat tight.

The boat looked like it was listing - actually was, or a case of a "well timed" photograph?
 
I'm glad to hear that this situation is resolving apparently without loss of life. Perhaps the questions can now start.

From https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/viking-sky-cruise-ship/
"Viking Sky is equipped with four MAN 32/44CR engines powering Rolls-Royce Promas propulsion and manoeuvring system."

The MAIB report should make interesting reading: how did she manage to lose all 4 engines at the same time?
 
Old Bumbulum said:
The first report I saw said it was down to one engine just 2 miles off a rocky lee shore and they had anchored. I imagine the crew were about as worried for the lives of all on board as any mariner ever is. That sounds like half an hour from the marine disaster of the century if it had gone ashore in the conditions shown in the photo.
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Looks an awful lot closer than that... No pressure engine room, but we could really do with starting those engines like now..:nightmare:

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GHA said:
Home safe!
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Not quite. I've still got to go to Gatwick for the 01:00 flight from Molde to pick up our two and take 'em to Liphook! Still, easier than getting 'em from Tilbury on Tuesday morning at 09:00 which was the original plan.
 
Old Bumbulum said:
The first report I saw said it was down to one engine just 2 miles off a rocky lee shore and they had anchored. I imagine the crew were about as worried for the lives of all on board as any mariner ever is. That sounds like half an hour from the marine disaster of the century if it had gone ashore in the conditions shown in the photo.
Bloody lucky, I'd say. What a job, trying to hoist 1400 people two at a time by winch!
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I agree, but in the situation you describe I can see why they would at least make a start. What I don't understand is why they kept on lifting people off for hours after it seems the problem was resolved. I'm sure there must have been a good reason.
 
JumbleDuck said:
What I don't understand is why they kept on lifting people off for hours after it seems the problem was resolved. I'm sure there must have been a good reason.
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Presumably the situation wasn't as resolved as it would 'seem'.

Still in very hazardous location, engines running, but perhaps some doubt about reliability?
 
JumbleDuck said:
I agree, but in the situation you describe I can see why they would at least make a start. What I don't understand is why they kept on lifting people off for hours after it seems the problem was resolved. I'm sure there must have been a good reason.
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Tows can part, engines can fail (again)?
 
Thistle said:
I'm glad to hear that this situation is resolving apparently without loss of life. Perhaps the questions can now start.

From https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/viking-sky-cruise-ship/
"Viking Sky is equipped with four MAN 32/44CR engines powering Rolls-Royce Promas propulsion and manoeuvring system."

The MAIB report should make interesting reading: how did she manage to lose all 4 engines at the same time?
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Norwegian ship in Norwegian waters: AINB. MAIB has no role.

https://www.aibn.no/home
 
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