Last night, March 26, the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) granted Viking Cruises a permit to sail on a single trip to Kristiansund in order to have the necessary repairs made. Throughout the night, NMA worked together with Viking Sky’s classification society, Lloyd’s, and the cruise company in order to identify the reason why the ship suffered power “blackout” in challenging weather conditions on March 23.
For the present, the conclusion is that the engine failure had been directly caused by low oil pressure. The lubricating oil's level in the tanks had been within set limits, however relatively low, when the cruise ship started to cross Hustadvika. The tanks had been provided with level alarms but these had not been triggered at the time. The heavy seas in Hustadvika had probably caused movements in the tanks so significant that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps had stopped. This had triggered an alarm indicating the low level of lubrication oil, that in turn shortly thereafter had caused an automatic shutdown of the engines.
The NMA drew up a general safety notice about ensuring the continuous supply of lubricating oil to engines and other critical systems in poor weather conditions.
Viking Ocean Cruises made the following statement:
“We welcome the prompt and efficient investigation carried out by the NMA and we fully understand and acknowledge their findings. We have inspected the levels on all our sister ships and are now revising our procedures to ensure that this issue could not be repeated. We will continue to work with our partners and the regulatory bodies in supporting them with the ongoing investigations.”
For other Viking Sky accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.