Massive cruise ship evacuation off Norway March 2019
 

Good luck to all involved. I understand the ship has been at least turned into the waves, which will hopefully reduce the rolling motion somewhat and make rescue hoist work less hazardous.

They obviously don't have North Sea winds and waves on Swiss lakes.

...or waiting for breakage of the anchor chain? The rocky coast is not far away! Evacuation is the only way!

skadi

A freighter with 9 aboard also in trouble nearby.

BBC report...

It is on `flightradar24,at least 4 helos ,and 2 locations.

1200 pax.
4 helos.
3 pax per winch.
1 winch per 20 mins.
36 pax/hr
33hours ????

Awfully long time to evacuate was my reaction also.

Hopefully the winds will die down, and the seas calm enough to allow the tenders to be put out and finish the job.

Having cruised with this line, I'm sure the crew will handle it all very professionally. Lots of us old geezers aboard -- we need gentle handling!

Because it doesn't have one, at least not on the deck plans available.

Seems to be making way.

4 knots against the wind. Wind is SW 25-35kn

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....50f195502a.png

Reports say it has one of its four engines serviceable, though that was before they anchored. Perhaps they managed to get another on line.

The view from the inside was very unpleasant - ceiling panels falling down on pax -and sofa chairs and tables flyingrolling across the floor - at least the grand piano was fixed.

Not nice for the folk on the ship - shallow water, nasty rough seas and high winds - at one point the ship was only a few hundred metres drifting without power off shore.
Lucky escape for now.
There is a H pad right on the bow...not sure if they are using this or on the upper aft decks...not much outdoor space on this ship for a chopper to safely hover over.

She is being shadowed or towed now by the Normand Ranger and the Ocean response large tug/supply vessels

15 hours into the evacuation and about 1/4 of the people onboard have been brought to land. My thought has always been that if there is a "real" emergency, like the ship taking in water or having run ashore that a helicopter evacuation of all passengers/crew is pretty much impossible in a reasonable timeframe . Imagine if this was 100Nm+ out at sea or if jet fuel was not available close by . . .

If she was way out in open sea and drifting she does not run the risk of running aground as was the close call yesterday but would be a rough ride in high seas without any power.

There have been in recent years quite a few liners losing all power (Queen Mary 2 being one of them on more than one occasion) but thankfully most had power restored ASAP.

The Greek liner Oceanos was way off shore in South Africa taking on water sinking in huge seas and most pax were taken off by Heli's

Latest is over 400 taken off - has some power and is trying to make a port today if weather allows

rog747

Yes I understand that the threat would not be as immediate if this ship was further away from the shoreline. What I was thinking about was if a ship would need to to be evacuated in a threatening emergency like a fire or if the ship was going down . . .
I know my thoughts are a bit off topic, but this real life example just show that at an evacuation of this scale just takes a long time.

The H deck up front is probably only for hoisting and not for landing a S92 or a 332. Anyway there it is probably far safe hoisting the pax than landing on the ship in 8m high waves.

You'd think after the first few laps that more than 3 per hour would be possible, though I am only speculating as the conditions look pretty challenging. I'd say after moving offshore and perhaps being able to point the ship into the waves the winch location could possibly be a tad more stable.. Well done to the crews involved, a big day out