A Viking Cruises ship that had narrowly avoided grounding and spent more than 12 hours being tossed about in rough, frigid seas has finally reached the relative safety of a coastal city in western Norway.
Viking Sky arrived at the port of Molde with nearly 900 people on board out of an original 1,373 on the afternoon (local time) of Sunday, March 24, after the crew were able to restart three of the ship's four engines.
Prior to arriving in Molde, 479 of the ship's occupants were evacuated by helicopter in the hours between its losing power on the afternoon of March 23 and the restarting of its engines on the morning of the following day.
The helicopter evacuation lasted the entire night of Saturday as Viking Sky was pushed around by 38-knot winds and wave heights of up to eight metres in an area approximately two kilometres off the Norwegian coast.
Numerous injuries have been reported with at least 13 people being rushed to various hospitals for immediate treatment.
The Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) and local police officials have begun their probe into the incident to determine why the engines had failed on a relatively new vessel that had only been operating for barely two years.
Assisting in the investigation are Lloyd's Register and MAN Energy Solutions, which supplied Viking Sky's four engines.