Viking Polaris accidents and incidents

29 November 2022Crew / Passenger Deaths

On November 29, 2022, while navigating south of Cape Horn (Chile) and in the middle of a storm, the ship was hit forward-portside by a giant rogue wave that broke six glass panels (the windows on deck 2's passenger staterooms). Reportedly, the rogue wave was ~12 m / 40+ ft high.

The accident resulted in 1 dead and 4 injured passengers, as well as flooding of staterooms and some public areas on lower decks (1 and 0). The four affected passengers sustained only mild injuries (non-life-threatening) and were treated at the infirmary. Viking Polaris suffered minor damage and successfully arrived and docked in homeport Ushuaia (Argentina) in the afternoon of Nov 30th.

The incident occurred at 10:40 pm Chilean time (1:40 am UTC) when the vessel was crossing the Drake Passage en route to Ushuaia, ending an 11-day relocation voyage from Buenos Aires.

The next scheduled Antarctic voyage (departure December 5th/roundtrip from Ushuaia) was canceled.

On the previous day (Nov 28th) while the ship was navigating in Antarctica (off Damoy Point and near Port Lockroy on Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago) the ship experienced a keel-tube failure. The accident resulted in a female passenger sustaining a serious head injury forcing Viking Polaris to head back to Ushuaia (earlier than scheduled) to provide the woman with a higher level of medical care.