Norway Maritime Authority (NMA) on Wednesday said low oil pressure was responsible for the engine failure of Viking Sky, a luxury cruise ship with at least 1,400 passengers and crew aboard which nearly led to its grounding along the west coast of Norway on Saturday.
The 2017-built Norwegian flagged luxury cruise ship owned by Viking Ocean Cruises drifted dangerously close to shore near the town of Hustadvika in stormy weather but the ship was able to drop its anchor and restart power to one engine, which seems to have saved it from running aground along the rocky shoreline.
The Viking Sky battled 6- to 8-meter waves as it fought its way into deeper water. All the while, rescue teams on board helicopters hoisted nearly 500 people to safety from the deck of the ship.
“Our conclusion is that the engine failure was directly caused by low oil pressure.
“The level of lubricating oil in the tanks was within set limits, however relatively low, when the vessel started to cross Hustadvika,” Head of Norway Maritime Authority, Lars Alvestad, said in a statement.
The agency further said heavy seas probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped.
“We have inspected the levels on all our sister ships and are now revising our procedures to ensure that this issue could not be repeated,” Viking Ocean Cruises was quoted as saying in the statement by the NMA.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Viking Sky left the port of Molde, where it had been anchored since Sunday, for repairs at a shipyard in Kristiansund, some 70 km (43.5 miles) away.
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