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Norwegian cruise liner reaches port after near disaster, dramatic rescue operation
OSLO: A cruise liner that ran into trouble in stormy seas off Norway reached port under its own steam on Sunday after hundreds of passengers were winched to safety by helicopter in a spectacular rescue operation.
Escorted by tugboats, the Viking Sky arrived in the port of Molde at around 4:15pm (1515 GMT), television images showed. Nearly a third of its 1,373 passengers and crew had already been airlifted off the ship.
The cruise liner lost power and started drifting on Saturday afternoon two kilometres off a stretch of Norwegian coastline notorious for shipwrecks.
The captain sent out a Mayday prompting authorities to launch the airlift in difficult conditions rather than run the risk of leaving people on board.