Official: Norway cruise ship engines failed from lack of oil

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Official: Norway cruise ship engines failed from lack of oil

By JAN M. OLSEN
March 27, 2019

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A cruise ship that was the focus of a daring rescue operation off Norway’s frigid North Sea coast became disabled because its engines didn’t have enough lubricating oil, the country’s top maritime official said Wednesday.

Low oil levels were the “direct cause” of the engine failure that stranded the ship during a storm Saturday, Lars Alvestad, the acting director general of the Norwegian Maritime Authority, said. Sensors detected the oil shortage and automatically shut down the Viking Sky’s engines to prevent a breakdown, he said.

The ship’s harrowing weekend ordeal injured dozens of people, including 36 who were admitted to hospitals. Four people from the ship remained hospitalized Wednesday, including one being treated in an intensive care ward in critical but stable condition, Norwegian health officials said.

Alvestad said the amount of oil was “relatively low” but still “within set limits” as the Viking Sky neared Hustadvika, a shallow area known for shipwrecks that has many reefs but no larger islands to offer boats shelter from pounding waves.

“The heavy seas probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped,” Alvestad said during a news conference. “This triggered an alarm indicating a low level of lubrication oil, which in turn, shortly thereafter, caused an automatic shutdown of the engines.”

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/8ca8ad0c722d41b197c9f5697cc27730

[htuttle]

1. I wonder how big the dipstick is on a ship that size?

It's probably pretty hard to wipe that thing off to check the oil.

[Sneederbunk]

5. But the captain had a couple of spare quarts on the bridge.

[Polybius]

6. LMAO!

That just sounded funny!

[uncle ray]

7. it's really not the size of the dipstick that matters.

it's how you use it.

[htuttle]

8. Well, apparently nobody did.

[Sherman A1]

2. I suspect that they will be double checking oil levels

before, during and after every ship movement in the future.

[Demonaut]

3. that's a screenplay to expose the reliance on tech to save or manage us

[at140]

4. Our cruise ship banked 45 deg at full speed!

That was on Norwegian cruise ship returning from Alaska back to Seattle. The ship suddenly accelerated to full speed and made a hard right turn banking 45 deg to right. It was late afternoon, nice sunny day, people in swimming pool were thrown out, people with nothing to grab on to got slammed into walls, we could hear crashing of China all over the ship, luckily wife and kids were on the staircase so they just hung on to hand rails, I was napping in bed in cabin and got thrown down from bed on the carpeted floor.

Later we found out from news that the ship's auto-pilot had mal-functioned! Right, they had 1200 crew on board and they use autopilot to run the ship?

[Wounded Bear]

9. Isn't that how the Exxon-Valdez ran aground?

[at140]

10. Auto-Pilots depend on flawless functioning of

software and hardware. It has many positive aspects such as saving in fuel and auto-correction due to wind gusts, following the shortest route etc but MUST BE WATCHED closely and if malfunction shows up, must manually override Quickly.

I do not recall why Exxon-Valdez ship ran aground, but most likely it was auto-pilot going awry and no one watching closely.

[Wounded Bear]

11. I do remember that the Captain was in his cabin...

possibly drunk, though I'm not sure that was proven. The first mate (or whatever you call the second in command) should have been at the tiller. Been a long time, but they proved negligence by the crew IIRC.