On the inside of the Viking Sky drama: – You can’t get any worse, really

The nightmare starts at 2pm on Saturday 23 March 2019. There is a severe storm in Hustadvika outside Fræna in Møre og Romsdal.

The cruise ship MS Viking Sky – which is on its way from Tromsø to Stavanger – suffers a power cut, and all four engines stop. It is impossible to maneuver the ship without engine power and electricity.

The wind has a strength of 50 knots – which corresponds to more than 90 kilometers per hour – and the waves are about ten meters high.

There are a total of 1,337 people on board, of which 915 are passengers. Inside, it’s chaotic. Chairs, tables and other things are thrown from side to side as a result of the strong wind and waves.

The 228-metre-long cruise ship is now drifting towards land, where there are lots of islets and reefs. There is great concern that the giant ship will run aground and take in water.

Both 330 Squadron and CHC helicopters move out with rescue helicopters. Alvin Fyhn is a CHC rescuer and is among the first to arrive on the ship.

– We know that this is an area with a lot of islets and reefs. If the ship drifts inwards, it can hit a reef and take in water – something that will be critical in such a situation, says Fyhn in the TV 2 series Rescued, which shows unique images from inside the dramatic and hugely extensive rescue operation.

Fyhn’s colleague, commander Rune Meyer Amundsenhas never seen anything like it in his career.

– I have trained in sea rescue for 22 years, but I have never experienced anything like this. If that boat is going around, and you’ve got a lot of people in the sea… you can’t get any worse, really. And then you imagine one of the biggest shipwrecks in Norwegian history, says Amundsen.

Must evacuate

The ship’s two anchors are released to prevent Viking Sky from drifting towards land. But it takes half an hour from the time the anchors are lowered until they become attached to the seabed. By the time the anchors manage to stop the ship, it is only 100 meters from shore.

Then the evacuation starts. One passenger at a time is hoisted up from the ship and into the helicopter via a cable. But the weather makes the evacuation challenging.

– We were mentally prepared for the ship to lie quite calmly in the sea, but it doesn’t. It moves a lot. There are 12-15 meter high waves in the area, the wind is blowing at more than 50 knots. It’s a full storm, says Alvin Fyhn.

The rescue team works hard and efficiently to evacuate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. The weather forecast for the night is not positive: Winds of over 60 knots – just over 110 kilometers per hour – and waves up to 20 meters high.

Viking Sky eventually starts one of four engines, which gives the ship enough power to aim the ship’s nose out to sea – away from threatening reefs and islets.

Another ship in distress

Near the Viking Sky evacuation, the freighter is located MS Hagland Captain themselves. The crew of nine sees Viking Sky and that the helicopters are hovering above and evacuating passengers.

And then the unthinkable happens. Two huge waves hit Hagland Captain almost simultaneously.

– The wave hits the entire superstructure. The whole bridge and everything, says Nils Kristiansencaptain of the Hagland Captain.

The 90-metre-long ship is loaded with timber, and the huge waves cause the cargo to shift and cause the ship to list – i.e. the ship lies askew on the sea surface. The engines then stop.

– Everything happened so quickly, says Captain Kristiansen, as he snaps his fingers.

The rescue personnel in the helicopters can hardly believe what they hear when they are told that yet another ship must be evacuated.

– I thought this was like science fiction. That it should happen on the same day, says CHC commander Rune Meyer Amundsen.

Starts evacuation of the cargo ship

Captain Kristiansen observes a dangerous cliff between the high waves towards which the ship is drifting. Kristiansen reaches over the ship’s radio to warn the crew not to drop the anchors.

– And then I am told that it is too late; they have already dropped their anchors. Then we just had to hope that the anchors didn’t stick, says Nils Kristiansen.

Hagland Captain manages, by a narrow margin, to drift safely past the reef.

Rescuer Alvin Fyhn, who has already evacuated 40 people from Viking Sky, is given the task of rescuing the nine on board Hagland Captain.

But due to the ship’s heeling side, the rescue work becomes extra demanding. It is also a race against time, since this ship is also drifting towards land.

The ship is now drifting towards land at approximately one knot per hour.

– This means that within one hour, the ship has moved two kilometres. And it is only three kilometers to land. So it was a critical situation, and it is becoming urgent to get started with evacuation, says Fyhn.

With the leeward side and storm, the ship is far too unsettled in the water for Fyhn to be brought down from the helicopter to the ship. Instead, a rescue operation is organized where one by one of the crew jumps into the sea, to then be attached to a cable and hoisted into the helicopter.

But this type of rescue operation is not risk-free – and the fact that it is dark, rough seas and waves of up to 15 meters does not make it any easier.

– We have to be absolutely sure that they have understood our plan, because if there is a misunderstanding – where, for example, two jump at the same time, or all nine jump at the same time – then we end up in a very difficult situation. Because we can only pick up one by one, says Fyhn.

Losing swimmer’s feet

Unfortunately, things go wrong when the first person jumps from the cargo ship to be rescued from the sea.

– The first person to jump has a lifebuoy with a rope, and it was hooked on the back of my flipper, Fyhn says.

– And then I lost one flipper. We are completely dependent on having flippers. Luckily we had spare flippers on board. Had we not had that, we would have had to stop there, having saved only one person.

After donning new flippers, the evacuation continues. But after the sixth person is rescued, something unexpected happens once again: the wire from the helicopter in which Alvin Fyhn is hanging jerks violently due to the storm, and as a result Fyhn injures his back.

– This means that I have to take a short breather where I stretch and stretch a bit.

After the breather, Fyhn realizes that it is better for someone else to take over the evacuation of the last three on board.

– At that point I feel that I am very tired. I had swallowed water, had a bit of a beating, and got a pain in my back, says Fyhn.

Another rescue helicopter takes over the evacuation of the three remaining on Hagland Captain.

– I was the last to jump, says Captain Kristiansen.

– I remember that I did not take many swims away from the boat, before someone came and took over. It all went very quickly.

No one died

Back at Viking Sky, the ship’s mechanics have started three of the ship’s four engines. This means that the ship can safely be in the storm, without the risk of drifting towards land.

A total of 479 people were evacuated by helicopter from Viking Sky and Hagland Captain. 28 people, all from Viking Sky, needed hospital treatment. No one died.

The next day the storm calms down, and Viking Sky – with the remaining passengers – and Hagland Captain are towed in to the quay.

– I have never been involved in such a large and comprehensive operation like this. And that no more people were injured or seriously injured, we should be happy about that, says Alvin Fyhn.

It has later become known that the engine shutdown of Viking Sky was due to low oil pressure.

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