Norwegian cruise ship loses ability to navigate after rogue wave hits

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• Terrifying video shows passengers hanging on for dear life after massive wave stranded cruise ship
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• Wild Videos Show Rogue Wave Wreak Havoc on Cruise
• Mom, four teen girls forced to leave their Airbnb after unsettling discovery: 'Trust your gut'

Such freak accidents may seem rare, but hundreds have occurred without warning around the world — on cruise ships, cargo vessels, oil platforms and beaches. Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning. Local media reported that about 200 people disembarked in Norway due to the bad weather before the accident.

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But as the day went on, the waves got bigger until they were large enough to spray her window on the sixth deck, she said. "Our team are working to arrange onward travel back home for guests onboard," the statement added. The ship, traveling under its own power, is currently sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation, HX said in an updated statement Friday. The ship was in the North Sea at the time, in an area hit by a storm late Thursday with hurricane-force gusts forecast to continue Friday, the Danish Meteorological Institute said according to Reuters.

Terrifying video shows passengers hanging on for dear life after massive wave stranded cruise ship

"Across the fleet, there are thorough operational protocols in place and we always prioritize the safety of those on board." "At this time, the ship has confirmed that no serious guest or crew injuries have been sustained as a result of the incident," the spokesperson said. "The condition of the ship remains stable, and the crew are able to sail under their own power." On Dec. 2, a passenger onboard another cruise ship in the Drake Passage shared a video of another massive, but less destructive, wave on Twitter. "This wave hit and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms," Tom Trusdale, a passenger aboard the Viking Polaris when the incident happened, told ABC News.

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Catriona MacRae, 43, and father, Ken, 79, were traveling through rough seas on the MS Maud when a tall, powerful wave came crashing down on the vessel. The nation's water and infrastructure authority said that was also a first. In Hamburg, the Elbe River flooded streets around the city's fish market, with water waist-high in places. German authorities warned of a storm surge of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) or more above mean high tide on parts of the North Sea coast on Friday.

Norwegian cruise ship loses navigation ability in North Sea during storm - Reuters.com

Norwegian cruise ship loses navigation ability in North Sea during storm.

Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Storm Pia's hurricane-force winds punished the North Sea and much of Europe Thursday and Friday, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. The rough seas interacting with the ocean floor and coasts built up the rogue wave, which can be twice the size of surrounding waves, according to NOAA. The MS Maud sustained a temporary loss of power while sailing to Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX said in a statement to NBC News. No serious injuries were reported among the 266 passengers and 131 crew members, according to HX. “The captain came on immediately to let us know what had happened, that the boat was stable, we had coast guard support and that the chances of needing to evacuate were minimal,” she told The Post of the moment the ship regained power. Reuters reported that the ship was being towed to Bremerhafen in Germany after the power outage.

His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. Elsewhere, Storm Pia blew over a 65-foot Christmas tree onto a woman, killing her, in Belgium, according to AP. Several containers stranded between Tranum and Slette beach, northern Norway, on December 23, 2023 after being lost in the North Sea during storm Pia.

Across the fleet, there are thorough operational protocols in place and we always prioritize the safety of those onboard,” HX said. One passenger posted a video on Facebook showing the view from her room's window Thursday with the cruise ship bobbing up and down and creaking in the throes of high waves. A possible rogue wave sent headlines around the world last week after it broke windows on a cruise ship off the coast of Argentina, killing a woman and injuring four others. The largest rogue wave ever recorded was the Draupner wave, an 84-foot-tall (25.6 meters) wave that was observed near Norway in 1995. However, the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded was the Ucluelet wave, a 58-foot-tall (17.7 m) wave that was detected by an ocean buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia in November 2020.

The MS Maud lost power after the wave hit as the ship was sailing toward Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, said in a statement. A Norwegian cruise ship lost the ability to navigate after a rogue wave crashed into it Thursday, the cruise company HX said. The force of the massive wall of water sent passengers flying and smashed several exterior windows, which flooded some rooms and caused further structural damage inside. A 62-year-old American woman, Sheri Zhu, was killed by injuries sustained from the broken glass and four other people received non-life-threatening injuries, according to Australian news site ABC News. A rogue wave terrified cruise ship passengers on the North Sea on Thursday as it towered over and tossed the ship, Tour Operator Thorsten Hansen told TMX. The main engine is functioning but the navigation systems and radars are not,” a spokesperson for the centre, which is responsible for coordinating search and rescue operations, said.

Rogue wave kills navigation system on cruise ship with nearly 400 on board as deadly storm hammers northern Europe

A tow vessel was dispatched to tug the damaged boat back to a port in Germany. In the meantime, the company said the ship was being being steered manually from the engine room but cannot navigate. Despite the chilling footage, the cruise company HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, said in a statement that each of the ship’s 266 passengers and 131 crew members were physically unharmed—though some are sure to be sea sick. “Earlier this afternoon, December 21, MS Maud reported a temporary loss of power after encountering a rogue wave,” Hurtigruten said in an emailed statement. HX said after following ongoing safety checks and technical assessments, the company amended the ship's planned route to sail to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation.

Its operator, Hurtigruten Expedition, said in a statement that the 266 guests and 131 crew were uninjured and that the vessel, initially headed for the English port of Tilbury, would be diverted to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation. The ship, operated by HX, a cruise company owned by Norway's Hurtigruten Group, was about 120 miles from Denmark's west coast when the wave struck, Reuters reported. The wave's force shattered some of the ship's windows and caused it to tilt "pretty violently," passenger Elizabeth Lawrence told Business Insider. Terrifying footage has emerged of panicked passengers bracing aboard a Norwegian cruise ship that lost power when it was hit by a rogue wave in the North Sea.

But they were in the middle of the North Sea when heart-stopping wave came crashing down around 4 p.m. “It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone,” Lawrence explained. Two civilian support vessels are aiding the ship in its journey to port, Danish rescue authorities said. Because of a lack of navigational abilities, the ship had to be steered manually from the engine room, per the news agency.