How safe are cruise ships?
If you believe the figures, there is no safer means of transportation than the cruise ship.
The fatality rate per billion passenger miles is just 0.08 (in comparison: 0.8 aviation, 3.3 automobile traffic; source: G.P. Wild International Cruise Survey 2011).
And yet incidents and accidents such as the recent one on the "Viking Sky" continue to make the headlines. Particularly explosive: the luxury liner, which got into distress off the Norwegian coast with 1,300 passengers, was only built in 2017 and was actually supposed to comply with the latest safety regulations.
How was it still possible for all four engines (!) to fail at the same time? The stormy and extremely choppy seas, which are not uncommon in the far north in March, agitated the ship's tanks so much that the oil level, which was already borderline low, fell below the minimum level and the pumps then stopped working. Sounds complex, but it's a bit like venturing into the mountains in the middle of winter with worn summer tires and hoping there's no snow - and if there is, someone will pull you out of the ditch ...
For me, something like that is an absolute scandal - and gross negligence that could easily have ended in disaster far from the coast. Because there are no rescue helicopters or tugboats there that can take passengers and ship to a safe harbor (at whose expense?). And whether the Viking Sky could actually have been evacuated via the lifeboats in eight-metre-high waves is also doubtful!
Will there be any consequences? The official investigations have not yet been completed. However, according to the entry on the shipping company's website, the Viking Sky will be setting sail again this month on a long Nordland voyage. Only the prices for the 14-day voyage from Bergen to Stockholm have been reduced from 18,789 euros to a reasonable 18,207 euros per person in the Owner's Suite ...
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