Sea cruisers almost suffered a very sad fate but destiny had better plans and they survived the close call.
A cruise ship that got into trouble off the Norwegian coast is heading to port after the dramatic rescue of hundreds of its passengers.
The Viking Sky lost power on Saturday and sent out a distress signal after it began drifting towards land.
Rescuers airlifted almost 500 of the 1,373 mostly elderly passengers from the ship in bad weather.
The vessel’s engines have been restarted and it is heading towards the port of Molde.
Evacuations have been halted for now but rescuers said they could resume if the captain deems it necessary.
The Viking Sky suffered engine failure on Saturday afternoon while en route to Stavanger from Tromso in a notoriously treacherous stretch of waters.
Fisherman Jan Erik Fiskerstrand, whose boat was one of the first to come to help Viking Sky, told Aftenposten newspaper, “it was just minutes before this could have gone really wrong”.
The ship could have hit the rocks “if they had not started the engine and fastened the anchor” he added.
Five helicopters and several rescue ships were called in but poor weather meant the lifeboats were forced to turn back.