Viking Ocean ship issues MAYDAY; airlifting pax off ship near Norway

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, azam71209 said:

Keep this experience in mind when people complain about missed ports because of "minor" weather problems that other cruise lines are willing to sail through. When a cruise line takes a risk and makes it to the next port safely, it's all well and good. But sometimes the risk takers guess wrong and the consequences can be lethal.

 

Mary

Keep in mind that the Norwegian Maritime Authority has not said that it considered that the Viking Sky sailing into that weather was a "risk".

[lackcreativity]

6 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Viking Sky cruise ship engine failure off Norway coast caused by low oil levels: official

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/engine-failure-on-cruise-ship-stranded-off-norway-coast-caused-by-low-oil-levels-official
 

The headline  is on that article is very misleading. The oil level was within the recommended levels, but on the low side. When the rough seas caused the ship to tilt, the oil dropped below the level set for the sensors, which caused alarms to go off and the engines to be automatically shut down. The loss of power caused the loss of navigation, which led to the very dangerous situation.  It's not like some dimwit on Viking forgot to check the oil and they were sailing the ship till the engines fried! There was no damage to the engines, and the Norwegian Maritime Authority has recommended that the high/low specifications for the engines be altered so this won't occur again.

 

That is the problem when the headline writer goes for the most sensational version of the story. Anyone who see the headline but doesn't read the article goes away with a distorted version of the event.

 

 

 

[Charles4515]

That is the problem when the headline writer goes for the most sensational version of the story. Anyone who see the headline but doesn't read the article goes away with a distorted version of the event.

 

 

 

It is Fox News. What do you expect? [emoji3] Ducking......

[lackcreativity]

21 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

It is Fox News. What do you expect? Ducking......

 

Don't worry, I won't throw anything! But that's a conversation for a different place and time.

 

[StanandJim]

3 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

It's not like some dimwit on Viking forgot to check the oil and they were sailing the ship till the engines fried! There was no damage to the engines, and the Norwegian Maritime Authority has recommended that the high/low specifications for the engines be altered so this won't occur again.

LOL, so your point is that because the Engines did not suffer lasting damage it was not really a big deal that the passengers were exposed to such danger ?

Sitting here, shaking my head.....

[ano]

4 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

The headline  is on that article is very misleading. The oil level was within the recommended levels, but on the low side. When the rough seas caused the ship to tilt, the oil dropped below the level set for the sensors, which caused alarms to go off and the engines to be automatically shut down. The loss of power caused the loss of navigation, which led to the very dangerous situation.  It's not like some dimwit on Viking forgot to check the oil and they were sailing the ship till the engines fried! There was no damage to the engines, and the Norwegian Maritime Authority has recommended that the high/low specifications for the engines be altered so this won't occur again.

 

That is the problem when the headline writer goes for the most sensational version of the story. Anyone who see the headline but doesn't read the article goes away with a distorted version of the event.

 

 

 

There might be bigger problems, because if the oil was at an allowable level, and the waves were at an allowable level, then apparently whomever designed the ship did a poor job. What else might be wrong with the design? Who knows, we'll have to wait and see.

[lackcreativity]

56 minutes ago, StanandJim said:

LOL, so your point is that because the Engines did not suffer lasting damage it was not really a big deal that the passengers were exposed to such danger ?

Sitting here, shaking my head.....

No, just to be clear, of course that was not my point. Viking was sailing through a storm with rough seas, with engine conditions that met the manufacturer's specifications. According to the information provided by a press release by the Norwegian Maritime Authority after their initial review,  conditions not accounted for in the specifications led to a series of unexpected and terrifying events which no one would claim was "not really a big deal".  Fortunately, the actions of the Viking captain and crew,  and the Norwegian rescue team were able to prevent this from being a true disaster. The fact that the engines were not damaged was what allowed them to be restarted, and get everyone out of such a dangerous situation.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by lackcreativity

[J0E1]

Further to Viking Sky.

 

Mares; Maritime Executive .com, carried an article 25/02/ related to Fincantieri installing on behalf of Viking a ‘Thordon System’  with ‘ Compac’ level selected in each of the most recent vessels constructed and under construction for Viking’s fleet.

 

Set me as very much a ‘Lay’ cruiser simply to thinking... Rough seas and intakes inconsistently not taking in cooling seawater as perhaps they should...

 

Seeing as we’ve a Cruise booked, my interest was piqued.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, J0E1 said:

Further to Viking Sky.

 

Mares; Maritime Executive .com, carried an article 25/02/ related to Fincantieri installing on behalf of Viking a ‘Thordon System’  with ‘ Compac’ level selected in each of the most recent vessels constructed and under construction for Viking’s fleet.

 

Set me as very much a ‘Lay’ cruiser simply to thinking... Rough seas and intakes inconsistently not taking in cooling seawater as perhaps they should...

 

Seeing as we’ve a Cruise booked, my interest was piqued.

Point me to where I'm wrong, but the only "Thorndon system" I see for marine use are stern tube bearings, nothing to do with sea water intake or cooling.  These bearings carry the shafting between the propulsion motor and the propeller, and use sea water as a lubricant rather than oil.  Found the article you reference, this does in fact reference the stern tube bearing systems, not any sea water cooling system.  And the polymer bearing material used in this system is much more forgiving of temporary loss of water lubricant (though the bearing would still be full of water if supply were interrupted) than the older rubber bearings.

[J0E1]

Folks like I are concerned when stories break related to High Seas experiences .

 

We layfolk interprete issues of journalistic ‘ fact’.

 

When others of experience and understanding respond to posts. It’s terrific to have input that is considered & reassuringly independent.

 

Thanks Guys.

 

Thanks to all!

[clo]

We were cruising on a small (100 pax) Hurtigruten ship that night.  North of them.  It was rough enough that we didn't sail that night.  Here's how our furniture was secured.

 

[Kingofcool1947]

On 3/23/2019 at 11:07 AM, GeezerCouple said:

100 passengers brought to the shore so far. Pictures on www.nrk.no, norwegian news site. 

 

Update: One of the engines are now working again.

 

The video that was displayed when we saw it was really a bit terrifying.  VERY dark skies, rough seas, and it did appear the ship was out of control.  [Marine experts, kindly correct me if needed.]

Hopefully this was before they got one engine working again.

 

This might be the section of water where we experienced *very* rough seas almost exactly 1 year ago, during a truly fantastic Hurtigruten cruise.

We could not stand up; furniture was moving around.  (We had an aft suite, high on Deck 8, so no surprise we felt it!)

The Captain had predicted the severe seas and warned everyone.  We crawled to the bedroom, got in bed for safety, and stayed there til we woke up in the morning, and all was calm.

*IF* I had seen this beforehand, there's not a chance in the world I'd have been able to sleep!

 

Hope all continues to go as smoothly as possible with the rescue!

 

There are mixed reports now on Viking Ocean section of CC about current status.

I'm glad that we have another month-plus before we get on a ship again.

(OTOH, I was in a major train wreck the year before my first cruise.  Train derailed and overturned in a remote area.  It took me a few years to get on a train again.  And yet...  here I am, although that wasn't clear for a thankfully short time.)

 

I just hope everyone remains safe!

 

GC

 

Did you crawl into bed and sleep with your life vest on?