A CRUISE ship that lost engine power off the coast of Norway amid stormy seas safely reached port yesterday after around half of its passengers were evacuated.
Footage online had appeared to show the ship rocking while debris fell from the ceiling and furniture slid across the floor while passengers sat waiting to be rescued.
The mayday call sent by the Viking Sky prompted the start of an operation to airlift 1300 passengers, 200 of which were Britons, from the boat in high winds.
It managed to anchor in Hustadvika Bay on Saturday after fears the vessel would run aground.
There were still 436 guests and 458 crew on board at the time of docking, after 479 passengers had been airlifted to safety while still stranded. A Viking Cruises spokeswoman said the ship arrived at port in the city of Molde on Norway’s west coast under its own power.
All passengers and crew are safe, she said, though 20 people suffered injuries and were receiving treatment, with some already discharged.
The company’s chairman, Torstein Hagen, told Norwegian newspaper VG that the events 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”. He added: “I am very proud of our crew.”
Derek and Esther Browne, from Hampshire, said the “whole boat was swaying, it was very rough” before they were airlifted to safety.
Browne told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We had a few people on stretchers, several with cuts, two with broken limbs, but fortunately we were alright. We were airlifted onto the helicopter which was quite a frightening experience.”
Viking Cruises issued a statement thanking the local emergency services “for their support and skill displayed in managing the situation in very challenging weather conditions”.
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