Saturday evening turned dramatic, and the ship came very close to running aground.

Viking Sky is proceeding under its own power at a speed of around seven knots, but is being followed by tugboats.

”The evacuation has been put on hold and the ship is heading towards Molde, says Einar Knutsen at the rescue centre HRS to TT.

A total of 479 of the 1,373 people on board have been airlifted to shore by helicopter, according to the NTB news agency. Throughout the night, three helicopters flew shuttle services to get the passengers ashore.

The nearly 900 people remaining on board can feel safe, according to Knutsen. The boat is expected to be in port around 3 p.m.

”It looks like we'll manage to get the boat into Molde with the rest of the passengers. The municipality has full crisis preparedness for when the boat arrives,” says Jan Arve Dyrnes from Fræna municipality, where most of the evacuees have been taken so far, at a press conference.

According to the American Rodney Horgen, who was on the cruise ship, the past 24 hours have been frightening.

”The best word to describe it is surreal. We were sitting in the restaurant when the ship began to lurch violently from side to side. People fell and tabletops slid across the floor,” he told NRK.

He describes how the water swept away 20 to 30 people and how he thought it was the end. Rodney Horgen was evacuated on Sunday morning and is now at a hotel in Molde with several others who were rescued.

Video clips circulating on Twitter show tables and chairs flying across the floor of the wildly lurching cruise ship. A total of 20 people have been injured, according to NTB.

On Saturday, when there was still a storm and none of Viking Sky's engines were working, the ship was reportedly 100 metres from running aground, according to pilots in Møre and Trøndelag. The crew struggled for more than half an hour to anchor the vessel.

”They were very close to running aground. It probably wasn't a pleasant experience to be on board the ship then,” says Emil Heggelund, operations manager for the pilots, to Bergens Tidene.

The rescue centre does not wish to comment on how close the vessel came to running aground.

”The ship was two kilometres from land when the crew managed to cast anchor, but the area is known to be full of reefs and shallows,” Einar Knutsen told TT.

A cargo ship with a crew of nine, which was on site to assist in the rescue operation, suffered engine failure and listed to one side during the evening. To be able to evacuate, the crew were instructed to jump into the sea to be picked up by rescue helicopter. All were rescued from the water.

Several small rescue boats were forced to turn back due to the high waves.

Shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, the Viking Sky sent out a distress signal and requested assistance after experiencing engine problems. The ship initially carried 915 passengers and 458 crew members, according to the shipping company. The vessel was sailing along the Norwegian coast from Tromsø to Stavanger.

Source: TT