Norway asks why ship drove into storm

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norwegian officials have opened an investigation into why a cruise ship carrying more than 1,370 people set sail along the country’s often wild western coast despite storm warnings, forcing a major evacuation by helicopter.

One person is in critical but stable condition in an intensive-care ward, hospital officials said, and eight others were still hospitalized after the weekend ordeal.

The Viking Sky had left the northern city of Tromsoe and was headed for Stavanger in southern Norway when it had engine problems and issued a mayday call on Saturday afternoon.

The ship anchored in heavy seas to avoid being dashed on the rocks in an area known for shipwrecks. Norwegian authorities then launched a daring rescue operation despite the high winds, eventually winching 479 passengers off the ship by helicopter in an operation that went on for hours Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

Dag S. Liseth of Norway’s Accident Investigations Board said “the high risk which the ship, its passengers and crew were exposed to made us decide to investigate the incident.”

After about half of the ship’s passengers were taken off, the captain made the decision at midday Sunday to halt the evacuation. About 900 people were still on board when the ship limped into the port city of Molde on its own engines.

Viking Ocean Cruises said Monday it had begun “an internal investigation ... to establish a complete and thorough understanding of what happened” and welcomed the official investigations, which they “will fully support.”

In the same statement, Viking Ocean Cruises chairman Torstein Hagen said he “would like to personally apologize for what our guests experienced.”

The Viking Sky is a relatively new ship, delivered in 2017 to Viking Ocean Cruises.

The ship was on a 12-day cruise along Norway’s coast before its scheduled arrival Tuesday in the British port of Tilbury on the River Thames. The passengers were mostly an English-speaking mix of American, British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian citizens.