in the middle of a raging Storm a cruise
ship carrying over 1,000 Souls loses
power the engines fail and a huge wave
shatters Windows causing freezing water
to flood the decks the Viking sky is
close to sinking as it drifts towards
rocks on the shore its Captain sends a
desperate Mayday call and experts
prepare for a disaster on the scale of
the Titanic this is a tale of shocking
oversight the story of how the Viking
Sky Cruise almost ended in catastrophe
on March 23rd 2019 the Viking sky was
sailing through the infamous hustadvika
Bay Area when its engines abruptly shut
down for hours it had endured crashing
6m waves and now at the peak of a
violent storm it was immobilized its
crew frantically tried to restart the
engines as the ship rocked from side to
side but as 90 mph winds tored apart the
situation couldn’t be worse but the
luxury craft shouldn’t have been so
close to destruction as we’re about to
find out the incident was years in the
making
the Viking sky is one of six ships owned
by Viking ocean cruises it specializes
in luxury holidays where guests can
enjoy Scenic views of the Arctic Circle
and catch glimpses of the northern
lights but as an entertainment company
Viking ocean cruises doesn’t have the
naval expertise to maintain the fleet
instead once ships are built by Italian
firm fin caneri its seafaring activities
are handled by wilhelmson a maritime
service provider based in Norway the
Viking sky is still considered a
state-of-the-art cruise liner today so
when it launched in 2017 you’d think it
had all its documentation in place but
conflicting reports suggest this wasn’t
the case in 2016 will hemson Engineers
working on a sister vessel realized they
lacked crucial information to maintain
the fleet its engine manufacturer hadn’t
provided guidelines for the correct oil
and alarm levels of its sum tanks it
seems a strange oversight for a 400
million ocean Cruiser but it’s more
baffling as the ship’s diesel engines
also generate its electricity so if they
failed mid Voyage the Viking Sky would
be left without power and propulsion so
for several years the fleet carried
thousands of passengers on ships its
Engineers weren’t even sure how to
maintain if this isn’t troubling enough
the ship could carry 930 gas and 465
crew members despite those numbers it
was classified as a small ship think of
how many crew are on board then think of
how many passengers and then go and have
a look and count the lifeboats remember
the Titanic Chums wasn’t enough
lifeboats was there there’s not enough
lifeboats on the cruise ships today
unaware of these risks the ships largely
retired passengers were excited to begin
their 12-day Cruise along the Norwegian
Coast beginning in Bergen the route took
passengers North to several towns
handing in a visit to Bodo from there
they’d head south and navigate a
notorious stretch of sea in the
hustadvika Bay Area the region is
Infamous for its shallow reefs rough
seas and sudden weather changes so
Sailors are on high alert to navigate
safely while feeling the pressure to
meet tight
schedules the first week of the cruise
went as expected and on March 21st
guests were enjoying a visit to tromo
but this is where the voyage ran into
several issues severe weather was
predicted over the next few days and
rival companies canel the plan trips but
the weather was isn’t the only thing
wrong in a regular incident for the
fleet one of its diesel electric
generators dg3 was offline due to a
faulty turbocharger but the ship would
run behind schedule if it waited in
trumo for the spare parts to arrive the
Viking Sky also had a staffing shortage
with its mandatory Pilots as expert
Navigators two were needed to ensure the
safe Passage through a more challenging
section of its course however one of the
onboard Pilots was only certified to
sail up to Christians sun and the
replacement pilot was set to join the
crew after the most dangerous leg of the
route in hustadvika Bay the captain and
Pilots were confident the ship could
safely pass through the bay and a
technician on board could repair the
generator when they reached Stavanger
aware of the risks they decided to leave
tromo port in the late evening but the
decision broke Maritime regulations with
one offline Viking sky wouldn’t have
enough fallback generators if the other
engines encountered issues at Sea and as
guests were about to discover these
weren’t the only problems s with the
Viking
Sky roughly 3 hours after leaving tromo
an alarm alerted the crew that dg2 had
loow lubricating oil but it stopped
shortly afterwards so no further action
was taken by technicians the weather at
this point of the journey was fine and
as the day progressed crew on the bridge
closely monitored increasing wind speeds
by morning however the captain was
worried about reaching their next
destination conditions were expected to
decline in the evening which could
result in the ship being trapped when it
made
so after assessing the situation he
decided to cancel a planned trip to Bodo
disappointed he told the passengers the
area was too dangerous to sail instead
the Viking Sky set course to Stanga
several hours later crew were instructed
to prepare the ship for deteriorating
weather and secure loose items in the
hall but as the ship continued sailing
in mellow Waters inshore the wind and
waves became increasingly Restless
throughout the day by midnight the
strong Breeze had grown into galeforce
winds and the ship log book recorded 6 M
waves it forced the captain to half the
ship’s speed to ensure a more
comfortable ride for passengers but if
they thought their night’s sleep was
rough passengers had no idea what lay in
store come Daybreak in the early hours
of the following day multiple warnings
registered on the ship the first was
another alarm indicating low lubricating
oil only this time it was for dg4 sump
tank and as the Viking Sky entered
Trondheim winds increased to a severe
Gale despite being sheltered from the
full effects of the volatile tide by a
series of islands more alarm sounded as
they crossed the Trondheim Fairway this
included a second low oil level warning
for dg4 and the forecast predicted that
the already intense winds would only
grow stronger so the captain ordered a
heavy weather checklist to be carried
out to prepare for the onslaught while
this happened over 150 warnings
triggered for various systems including
additional low oil alerts for dg4 by
this point the engineer on watch had
acknowledged three separate warnings for
dg4 but each was cleared from the system
without adding oil or investigating
further meanwhile passengers were served
breakfast as usual but a feeling of
unease spread as they began to feel the
effects of the emerging storm some
struggled to stay on their feet others
watched as glasses smashed and loose
objects slid across restaurant tables
eventually Engineers inspected the tanks
manually testing the alarms and
recording oil levels towards the end of
the 4 noon watch but the levels were
just judged to be normal and in a few
short hours it would have serious
consequences as midday approached the
ship reached hustadvika Bay and one of
the pilots left the bridge as expected
now back in Open Water the Viking sky
was rocked by 7 m waves and the captain
informed passengers that a storm was
coming less than an hour later the
weather was officially declared a
violent storm open doors and windows
swung uncontrollably against their
frames as gusting winds reached over 90
mph shortly after 1 1 p.m. the crew
reported it had finished the heavy
weather checklist this included topping
up the sump tanks with lubricating oil
but despite marking the checks as
complete the tanks still hadn’t been
toed up due to their negligence engines
had been running low on oil for over 24
hours and as the ship pitched and rolled
in the Sea Air was sucked into to the
lubricating system pipes this further
reduced the engine’s oil supply and
dramatically increased their load but
unknown to everyone a fatal design
doomed The Voyage from the moment it
left tromo on top of being underfilled
the sump tanks were around 40% smaller
than regulations required this was the
final straw for the ship’s strained
engines as they had reached their
breaking point in the engine control
room several alarms went off at once dg4
oil had dipped below the minimum level
triggering an automatic mechanism to
prevent a blowout both dg1 and dg4
started losing electrical power which
was followed by a low oil alert for dg1
the situation was critical yet the
warnings were ignored and the engineer
on watch simply cleared them from the
system many floors above on the ship’s
Bridge the captain and pilot relaxed
unconcerned with the chaos Brewing below
so when dg4 and dg2 shut down in quick
succession it came as a complete shock
both were caused by low Lube oil
pressure and a flurry of alarms sounded
at once the engineer on watch
immediately contacted the chief engineer
who quickly headed to the control room
with limited speed the Viking Sky
stabilizers automatically retracted
causing the ship to roll almost double
the 6° angle it was before since those
in charge weren’t on top of the emerging
crisis passengers and staff were left in
a vulnerable position they were still
serving lunch and moving about common
areas while technicians tried to get dg2
back online approximately 10 minutes
later dg2 was restarted by the crew and
the ship stabilizers were brought online
but this was only a temporary re spite
dg2 shut down again quickly followed by
dg1 causing a total blackout facing
massive waves and perilous winds the
ship had no power or steering they were
stranded dead in the water Panic
unfolded among passengers who wondered
what had happened in partial Darkness
they huddled beneath flickering lights
as the captain assessed the situation a
staff member describes the experience
everything was broken plates glasses
furniture back in the control room the
crew struggled to deal with a poorly
designed alarm system up to 1,000
warnings sounded at once but many of
these were for minor systems clouding
the engineers to what was truly wrong so
when the captain called Engineers they
couldn’t estimate how long it would take
to restore power seeing that the ship
was drifting toward Shore he made an
urgent distress call mayday mayday
mayday this is Viking Sky engines failed
in storm conditions 100 m from rocks
request immediate assistance it was
picked up by the Norwegian Coast Guard
who sprung into action quickly launching
boats to Aid the ship with help on the
way the captain tried to stop the ship
both anchors were dropped crashing to
the seabed with an unnervingly rapid
thud but they couldn’t hold in the
massive swell and the Viking Sky
continued drifting damaging the anchors
as they dragged along the seafloor while
the guests feared for their lives the
crew fought desperately to get the
engines back online they finally
realized low oil pressure was the
problem and started transferring oil
into the sump tanks but poor training
meant they hadn’t practiced restoring
power without a backup generator so
steps to reset the engines weren’t
completed in the correct order at this
point one of the pilots took over
communicating with Rescuers and the
captain prepared the ship for evacuation
ladies and gentlemen this is the general
emergency signal for all Crew Please get
emergency position and for all guests
please proceed to your muster stations
at this time either muster station a or
to their credit passengers remained as
calm as possible and then some good news
came from the engineers they managed to
reset dg2 and restore limited power to
the vessel meaning there was a Fighting
Chance of firing up the propeller Motors
however not long after the Viking Sky
drifted over a rock with only 4 M of
clearance to the ship experts later
warned it was only minutes from running
a ground becoming one of the worst
Maritime disaster stories in modern
times
half an hour later passengers were
anticipating their rescue when a massive
wave hit the ship near the second muster
point it smashed through windows and
ripped a heavy metal door off its hinges
causing ice cold water to flood through
the ship some were injured by shards of
glass and other loose objects with the
most serious injuries including a broken
neck when the doors struck passengers if
the situation wasn’t salvaged soon there
was a real risk that hundreds of people
could freeze to death in a hostile sea a
passenger on board to Cruise describes
the experience I ended up sliding across
the floor and then when the ship rolled
back I came back and I ended up under a
table and the table was pinning my leg
down there and I was up to my neck in
water seeing the urgency of the
situation the Coast Guard couldn’t
attach toe lines to stabilize the ship
which was listing as much as 30° with no
other option they returned ashore and
the Coast Guard dispatched six
helicopters to airlift passengers to
safety they reached the Viking Sky
moments after water entered the hall and
immediately prioritized the injured and
most vulnerable guests but progress was
steady and rescue workers could only
move as quickly as conditions allowed so
they winched passengers two at a time to
speed up the operation throughout the
next hour dg1 and dg2 were brought back
online this at last gave Viking Sky a
slim chance to avoid the shallows albeit
at a modest speed and not long after a
coast guard vessel and heavy tugbo vivac
reached the ship to the relief of all on
board they helped the captain navigate
away from The Reef even so the ship
struggled to get clear of danger
entirely and vivac couldn’t tow Viking
Sky to safety so another tugboat was
drafted to help but it would take some
time to reach the area as the ship
crawled into deeper waters dg2 briefly
shut down due to low oil pressure which
was quickly resolved by Engineers it now
had all three generators working and in
a place of relative safety the
evacuation continued Through the Night
by the early hours of March 24th the
tugboat ocean response arrived at the
scene roughly 1100 people were still
stranded even with Rescuers working
non-stop cold and wet they’d been
trapped for nearly 13 hours waiting for
daylight and an end to this ordeal
mercifully when the sun rose the storm
was beginning to ease and toe lines from
both tugboats were attached to Viking
sky hle crew were also able to stabilize
the vessel thanks to the calmer seas and
the rescue operation stopped not long
after in a mon to effort 460 people had
been evacuated from the ship the
starboard anchor so damaged it couldn’t
be winched back into place was cut free
and the Viking Sky limped ashore aiming
to dock in molda it arrived in the late
afternoon and the remaining passengers
and full compliment of crew thanked God
they’ survived to his credit the
chairman of Viking ocean cruises
apologized to passengers in person and
they were given a full refund for their
holiday it could have been a very bad
situation and I think we are very
grateful for for the
captain in the aftermath of the voyage
Viking ocean cruises reported major
damage to the ship’s starboard or
right-and Windows some were destroyed
outright there was also stress on the
ship’s structure and superficial damage
throughout the investigation into the
incident found design flaws and a
failure to maintain oil level as the
main cause it made over 14
recommendations including newly designed
tanks and improvements to ensure the
ship’s seaworthiness wil hemson and
Viking ocean cruises also came under
Fire for contributing to the disaster in
particular the decision to leave port at
tromo poor staff training in a blackout
situation and the failure to ensure two
certified Pilots were on board for the
entire route both updated their staff
training programs and introduced new
procedures for monitoring and responding
to alarms they also altered company
policies to ensure ships and pilot
Staffing complied with regulations 18
people were injured with only a single
serious casee despite this incident the
cruise industry is among the safest ways
to travel and it’s a miracle there were
no
casualties watch this episode next if
you found this video interesting please
add a like and leave a comment if you
want to support the channel