on the afternoon of March 23rd
2019 the cruise ship Viking Sky faced a
power outage in a barrage of strong
winds with gusts reaching up to 29
m/s while it was in the area of hustava
along the Norwegian
Coast this power loss caused the ship to
lose its ability to move forward and
steer and with over, 1300 people aboard
the ship came dangerously close to
running ground which could have resulted
in one of the worst Maritime disasters
in recent
history here is the inside

The Blackout

story on the afternoon of March 23rd
2019 the cruise ship Viking sky was
sailing from tromo when it suddenly lost
power in
steering this happened in an area along
the Norwegian Coast Coast called hustava
where Strong Winds of about 24 m/s were
blowing with gusts reaching up to 29
m/s this equates to wind speeds that are
of a really strong
Breeze because of the blackout the ship
couldn’t control its movement and
started drifting dangerously close to
the shore the captain immediately called
for emergency assistance known as a
Mayday
signal the Viking sky was a large cruise
ship measuring 228.000 m in length it
used a type of engine called diesel
electric propulsion this means it
generated power using diesel fuel to run
electric motors that mooved the ship it
was built by a company called fin
cantieri in Italy and was put into
service January
2017 the Viking sky was part of a group
of similar cruise ships called The
Viking star
class by the time of the incident seven
other ships of the same class had joined
the fleet with more expected to
follow this ship was allowed to carry up
to 954 passengers but it could
accommodate a maximum of, 1453 people
including passengers and
crew at the time of the incident there
were 915 passengers and 459 crew members
making a total of
1,374 people on
board most of the passengers were from
the United States with 602 Americans on
board followed by the United Kingdom
with
197 there were smaller numbers from
various other countries with a third
majority of 69 passengers coming out of
Australia the Viking sky was owned by a
company called Viking ocean cruises and
its technical management was handled by
Will Helms and ship management it was
registered in Norway and flew the
Norwegian flag the Norwegian Maritime
Authority was responsible for over
overseeing safety and Environmental
Protection on ships registered in
Norway the MV Vikings sky embarked on
its final Northern Lights cruise from
Bergen on March 14th
2019 this journey included stops at
ports like Alta tromo photo and
stavenger leaving tromo at around 10
p.m. on March 21st it was due to arrive
in Bodo by March
22nd after Bodo the plan was to visit
stavenger on March 24th before heading
to London the last stop of the trip when
the ship departed tromo it had two
licensed Norwegian Coastal pilots on
board these Pilots were required for
certain parts of the journey both had
experience with the Viking sky and knew
the ship and crew
well during the trip one of the ship’s
four diesel generator sets called dg3
was not working because of a recent
issue with its
turbocharger parts to fix it were
expected to be delivered in stavenger
and a technician was already on board to
prepare for the
repair before leaving tromo the captain
along with the bridge team and Pilots
reviewed the planned route they
considered the missing engine and the
expected weather conditions and they
knew strong winds and rough Seas were
predicted the weather was actually
initially good but at 1:11 a.m. while
passing a nearby Island an alarm went
off indicating low lubrica oil in
dg2 it was quickly addressed and the
journey continued without major
incidents by the time they reached Bodo
the captain was concerned about
worsening weather conditions and the
difficulty of leaving the port so they
decided to skip Bodo and head straight
for stavenger passengers were informed
of this
change as they sailed toward stavenger
the crew was instructed to prepare for
worsening weather the ship encountered
strong winds in high waves on its way to
tranim so the speed was reduced to make
the journey
smoother entering the tranim Fairway on
March 23rd around 6:00 a.m. the ship
faced strong gale force
winds despite this they proceeded
expecting conditions to worsen later on
during certain watch periods the ship’s
alarm system registered several alarms
including low lubricating oil level
alarms again these were acknowledged by
the engineer on Watch and resolved
without further
action when the MV Viking Sky passed
Christensen just before noon one of the
pilots left because he only had
authorization to navigate up to that
point a new pilot was expected to join
the ship when it reached olison
meanwhile the captain informed
passengers about the upcoming weather
through the ship’s announcement
system around 12:30 p.m. as the ship
entered hustadvika the wind speed
averaged about 30 30 m/s with gusts up
to 41 m/ second the wind and waves hit
the ship from the right side and the
waves were between 4 and 6 M high with
occasional higher
waves despite this the crew continued
with their usual tasks and lunch service
continued for the
passengers at 1:17 p.m. the crew
completed a checklist to prepare for
heavy weather which included various
tasks related to navigation
communication stability and engine
maintenance starting around 1:30 p.m.
more sea spray was noticed and the
ship’s rolling increased to about 3 to
4° with occasional movements up to
6° at 1:37 p.m. alarms went off yet
again indicating low lubricating oil
pressure and automatic load reduction in
one of the engines
dg4 this meant the engine wasn’t getting
enough oil to run
properly the alarms were acknowledged
but didn’t trigger any further action a
similar alarm occurred in another engine
dg1 but at 1:40 p.m. it was quickly
resolved despite these alarms both the
pilot and the officer on watch seemed
relaxed chatting on the bridge in the
passenger areas service continued as
usual however at 1:45 p.m. dg4 shut down
followed shortly by
dg2 these shutdowns were due to the low
oil pressure issue around 50 alarms
sounded in the engine room and the chief
engineer was informed about the
situation arriving at the engine control
room about 6 minutes
later the ship speeds dropped below 6
knots causing the stabilizers to retract
automatically making the ship’s
movements worse in the rough Seas roll
angles increased to 46° with occasional
movements all the way up to
12° the crew began clearing unused
tables in the
restaurants at 156 6 p.m. dg2 was
successfully restarted and the
stabilizers were manually deployed but
less than 3 minutes later at 1:58 p.m.
both dg1 and dg2 shut down causing a
complete blackout and loss of propulsion
and steering for the ship enter The
Madness of the Viking sky

The Aftermath

[Music]
immediately After the Blackout around
1,000 alarms went off in the engine room
due to the sudden loss of power luckily
the emergency diesel generator kicked in
within 4 seconds providing power to the
emergency switchboard just 16 seconds
later meanwhile on the bridge more
alarms blared and some loose equipment
fell because of the ship’s sudden
movement the bridge team quickly
realized that all the engines had
stopped and contacted the engine control
room to find out how long it would take
to get them running
again however the engineers couldn’t
figure out the cause of the shutdowns
right away so they couldn’t estimate how
long it would take to fix the
problem seeing the seriousness in the
situation the captain sent out a
distress signal known as a Mayday at
2:00 p.m. he then instructed the crew to
drop both anchors to try to stop the
ship from drifting further the crew
worked to lower both anchors but despite
putting out a good length of anchor
chain the anchors didn’t hold and the
ship continued to drift towards the
shore at about 4 knots the wind was
blowing at an average speed of 24 m/s
with gusts up to 35 m/
second rescue operations were
immediately launched by The Joint rescue
coordination Center as the ship
continued to experience intense rolling
movements with angles reaching up to
14° inside the ship Furniture slid
across the floors and ceiling plates
fell in some areas causing chaos among
passengers back in the engine room
Engineers tried to restart the diesel
generators but their efforts were
unsuccessful after some time they
suspected that the shutdowns might be
due to the low oil pressure around 2:12
p.m. they started transferring oil from
the storage tank to the engines oil sump
tanks prioritizing the largest engine
dg2 after being restarted the diesel
generators referred to as dgs kept
shutting down because they still had
active alarms indicating low oil
pressure when the oil level became
enough to ensure a steady supply of oil
to the engine’s pump the pressure
finally went back to normal and the
alarm
stopped however to start the engines
remotely the control system needed the
alarm to be reset locally and in the
engine control room several attempts to
restart and connect the engines to the
switchboard failed because these
specific steps weren’t done in the right
order also the engine speeds had to
match for them to be connected to the
main switchboard and work together this
was tricky because the load on the
engines changed with the weather
conditions at 2:13 p.m. the general
alarm was activated and passengers and
crew started gathering in designated
areas one of the pilots took charge of
communicating with the rescue Personnel
while the staff Captain prepared for the
possible evacuation
of passengers by
helicopter the captain stayed in touch
with the authorities on land and kept
passengers informed through the ship’s
announcement
system at 2:22 p.m. dg2 was successfully
restarted and connected to the main
switchboard and manual control mode
around this time the ship was very close
to shallow areas and rocks 5 minutes
later the ship drifted over a rock
marked at the depth of 10 m even though
the ship draft or how deep it sits in
the water was about 6.5
M the engineer’s main goal at this point
was to get the propulsion Motors and
propellers running to prevent the ship
from hitting the
ground by 2:31 p.m. the Portside
propulsion motor was connected by around
237 p.m. both propulsion Motors were
working providing enough power to
maintain a speed of 1 to 5 knots forward
at this point the ship was dangerously
close to running ground within the
length of the ship
itself after the captain asked for help
the chief engineer took manual control
of the propulsion Motors to avoid them
shutting down due to moving in rough
Seas an electrician was on standby to
quickly reset the motors if
needed the bridge had power for lights
and communication systems and the
captain kept everyone updated using the
PA system he told passengers not to use
the lifts and informed them about the
Poss possibility of helicopter
evacuations at 3:24 and 3:46 p.m. two of
the diesel generators dg4 and dg1 were
restarted and connected to share the
load
automatically however because the ship
was close to shallow Waters and there
were concerns about the engine control
room they didn’t want to risk another
blackout by switching the third
generator dg2 to automatic mode so dg2
remained in manual mode this resulted in
dg1 and dg4 taking most of the
load after the distress signal at 2:00
p.m. The Joint rescue coordination
Center organized a rescue team led by
the
police their job was to manage and
coordinate the rescue efforts the rescue
operation including helicopter rescues
and passenger evacuation is detailed in
a report by the Norwegian direct t for
civil protection the Norwegian safety
investigation Authority focused on the
ship’s activities and how the rescue
operation worked with the
vessel helicopters and rescue vessels
were dispatched immediately after the
distress call the Coast Guard vessel
left Christensen at 2:15 p.m. and headed
toward the ship on board two assembly
points were set up one in the theater at
the front of deck or assembly station a
and one in the main restaurant at the
back of deck 2 or assembly station B
passengers gathered at these points
after the alarm sounded at 2:13 p.m. at
2:26 p.m. Viking Sky reported to the
jrcc that it had dropped both anchors
but they didn’t hold the ship requested
evacuation by
helicopter however due to the weather it
was deemed too risky to use lifeboats or
transfer passengers to other ships so
the decision was made to evacuate purely
by
helicopter around 3:00 p.m. the ship was
hit by a series of large waves
one wave smashed a door between the
starboard side and the outer embarcation
deck injuring some
passengers cold seawater flooded into
the assembly station causing chaos and
injuries passengers were moved to safer
areas helicopters were supposed to pick
up passengers from the port side of deck
a but the bad weather and ship movements
made it too risky an alternative area
for evacuation was considered but also
deemed too
dangerous six Rescue helicopters were
involved in evacuating passengers the
closest helicopter took off from
Christensen about 40 km away the other
five helicopters came from bases along
the coast from stavenger in the South to
orando in the
north the first helicopter arrived above
the ship at 3:3 p.m. the crew positioned
The Vessel to make it easier for
helicopters to evacuate
passengers after assessing the situation
they were ready to start hoisting
passengers up the first hoisting
operation began about 1 hour and 20
minutes after the distress call injured
passengers and a rescue crewman were
lifted together and to speed of the
process some rescues were done as tandem
lifts eventually the crewman was
stationed aboard to organize the rescue
efforts the helicopter shuttled back and
forth between Viking sky and a Reception
Center on Shore about 2 km away to drop
off passengers and refuel
this way they could keep the rescue
operation running smoothly the Coast
Guard vessel arrived at 4:40 p.m. to
coordinate the rescue efforts and the
tugbo fix arrived at 5:05 p.m. and
stayed nearby to help the ship move
slowly towards deeper
waters around 7:00 p.m. another distress
call came from their cargo ship hogland
captain which had lost power
itself one of the helicopters assisting
Viking sky was diverted to help the
cargo ship but it didn’t affect the
evacuation at about 7:45 p.m. the
tugboat ocean response was sent to
Viking Sky to help tow it by 9:00 p.m.
all engines were working and the ship
was in deeper
waters they retrieved the damag port
anchor and released the starboard anchor
ocean response arrived at 2:45 a.m. but
they postponed securing the tow lines
until daylight due to rough
weather tow lines were secured around
8:30 a.m. and by 9:15 a.m. the
helicopter evacuation was stopped in
total 460 passengers were rescued by
helicopters throughout the night and
Viking Sky then headed toward molden and
arrived around 4:25 p.m. on March
24th the Norwegian safety investigation
Authority recorded 19 passenger injuries
during the incident one of which was
serious the injured passengers received
initial Care on board and were later
transported to nearby hospitals and
emergency centers for further treatment
one passenger was airlifted to a
hospital in Bergen fortunately no crew
members were
injured reports from Witnesses and CCTV
footage indicate that most of the ship
and interior damage occurred either
during or shortly after the
blackout some windows on Deck 7 were
cracked a wave impact around 3:00 p.m.
caused a door leading from the outside
deck to the restaurant on Deck 2 to
break this is believed to be when most
of the damage on the starboard side
happened including to Lifeboat number
three control stations for Lifeboat
davits the gangway bracket railings
between decks 2 and three and life
jacket
boxes the starboard stabilizer also
sustained
damage while the full extent of interior
damage is not yet known witness reports
in the aformentioned CCTV footage have
shown damage in the restaurant area
particularly after door to the open deck
was
dislodged additionally falling ceiling
plates and unsecured Furniture caused
further damage throughout parts of the
ship weather and sea conditions data for
the MV Viking Sky incident was gathered
from various sources including weather
reports observations and Records like
the voyage data recorder video
surveillance and the deck loog book crew
passengers and other relevant parties
also provided observations and
statements with eyewitness
testimony before the ship departed tromo
on March 21st weather forecasts
indicated strong winds and rough Seas
along its route gale force winds were
expected on the southbound Journey
towards Bodo increasing to storm force
winds and significant wave height during
the voyage towards
rvi multiple weather reports and special
alerts warned of severe conditions from
Bodo to hustadvika on March 23rd the day
of the incident storm Force winds and
high waves were forecasted for hustava a
known hazardous
area hustava located between bud and
Christensen is notorious for its
dangerous conditions strong winds from
the southwest to Northwest create large
steep waves especially during outgoing
Tides this area is known for
unpredictable and breaking
surf official Maritime documents like
the admirality sailing directions and
the Norwegian pilot guide
highlight the perilous nature of hustava
emphasizing its challenging wave
conditions electronic navigational
charts did not include warnings about
dangerous waves in hustava at the time
of the incident but were updated
later despite the challenging conditions
the MV Viking Sky followed the main
Fairway while crossing husvika on the
day of the
incident in the end the accident on the
MV Viking Sky happened because there
wasn’t enough oil in the lubricating
tanks of all the working diesel
generators this combined with the ship’s
movement in rough Seas led to the
blackout the investigation found
problems related to how the ship was
operated technical issues and
organizational problems all of which
played a role in the
blackout it took 39 minutes from the
blackout until both engines were working
again and the ship had enough power to
move at a slow speed this was a
stressful situation because the ship’s
control system was complicated and
specific steps had to be taken in the
right order insufficient training for
the crew likely made the recovery
process take even
longer when the MV Viking Sky left tromo
on March 21st
2019 one of its four diesel generators
wasn’t working this meant there wasn’t a
backup in case of problems which goes
directly against safety
regulations because the ship meet the
required safety standards it shouldn’t
have sailed from tronzo under those
conditions it’s why everyone involved is
very very lucky the outcome wasn’t worse
otherwise we could have been looking at
the 21st centuries version of the
Titanic disaster with a mass casualty
event forever changing the history books
of death on the high seas