Cruise Ship Viking Sky Update

He IS being scrutinised, as is whatever anybody else in authority, on board and in the administration ashore did, incl. the Engineers, the Pilots that were on board, the SAR Centre that coordinated the rescue operation, the helicopter operation and even the municipal administration, medical staff and volunteer organisations that helped in the effort to assist those who were airlifted to safe ground.

The question is if any meaningful improvements, or changes, will be made because of this incident.
Sue anybody and everybody in a US court of law, with no jurisdiction in any of the countries involved, is not going to do any good, or make any difference to how ships are built, equipped, manned or managed in the future.

I think many on this forum will agree with you on this (wow, agree with ombugge???! haha).

Our industry (and society) is more [over]educated and [over]credentialed than it has ever been throughout all of history. Yet competency seems to be lacking all over. Training and certificates does not mean one knows what the heck they are doing.

Yes I fully agree that education and credentials, both maritime and others, does NOT guarantee competence. Neither does race, or nationality.

Experience is good, but it is possible to do the same thing wrong for years and call it experience. With experience it is easy to grow complacent and don’t see that things changes over time.

The last is a good reason to change ship, change trade, or change job ones in a while. I have been lucky in my working life, having had a varied career with no change to go stale, but I notice it is easy to become routine oriented when there is few changes and challenges.

This is a Letter to the Editor in today’s local paper smp.no from a former Chief Engineer and long term inspector in DNV. (Google Translation):

There is a lot more in the article, but this is his conclusion:

I think he needs to lay out his proposed mechanism of failure in more detail before it can be understood.

The way I read it: Since the motors are situated in the fore and aft direction, with the luboil tanks long, narrow and less than full, the liquide will splash towards the bow end when the ship is setting hard in head seas.

It is a well know principle, which is used in ant-roll tanks and is a consideration for bulkhead strength in large tankers etc.

In this case; If only one suction and that is situated in the middle, or in the after part of the tank, the luboil pump can lose suction, resulting in loss of oil pressure to the engine(s). If the tanks were full there are no problem with this, but it is know that all the luboil tanks were at low level, although within the required minimum level.

That makes it a simple problem to avoid, and instructions to keep the luboil tanks on other engines of this type at a near full level has been issued by NMA, MAN, LRS and DNV.

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Makes perfect sense, thanks. Would think they’d be baffled against this. Or maybe cruise ships don’t pitch.

Setting? I am not familiar with that word. I thought the usual word is pitching if that is what you mean. BTW in Dutch ‘stampen’ is pitching, but stamping in English has to do with documents or stamping your foot in anger.

stomping. There, fixed for you.

“stamp” is more formal, less dialect than “stomp”

You’re right. I don’t know what to say other than I’m stumped.

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I got nuttin’
 :slight_smile:

In Dutch we have one word for ‘stamping your foot in anger’: stampvoeten.

All very interesting about stamping/stomping but back to the subject at hand.
“Pitching” is the vertical motion caused by seas from ahead
“Setting” is caused by running hard into oncoming seas, causing a momentary slowing of speed. It also cause “slamming” on a ship with a bow configuration like the Viking Sky.

These two reaction cause liquids in tanks to move far beyond that from the inclination of the vessel. It also cause acceleration, which make liquids in less than full tanks to pile up against a bulkhead with force. This is also something being considered for lashing calculations.

On HLV it is frequently necessary to leave some ballast tanks slack to avoid too fast motion, causing excessive strain on lashings and to much cribbing pressure due to acceleration. Bulkhead strength is also considered in the planning.

The engineers should have been able to bypass the low oil pressure shutdowns. It’s better to save a ship from the rocks than to save the engine of a ship that is now on the rock.

Agree in principle, but the only thing that is “on the rock” in the case of Viking Sky is the whiskey in the bars on board.
It was damn close and mostly saved by good luck. (The anchor getting hold)
The fact that the Engineers managed to get some power restored helped though.

Here’s an interview with one of the pilots on board: Norwegian Original on NRK - Google Translation

That day I really missed a button labeled “override”. It’s a bit like those aircraft that suddenly decide they don’t want to fly any more. Then the pilots sit and claw away at the sticks, but can’t do anything. I think that’s a really bad idea.

Stateless Inge Lockhart? Loser colleague? I think Google translate owes the Norwegian language an apology. :wink:

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Don’t forget the overpowered button. I also want one of those.

Trying to picture “the pilots munching away at everything” gives me the giggles, too


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Your “clawing at the sticks” gave me the shivers.