Ferry Filled With Passengers Trapped In Baltic Ice

March 5, 2010-According to reports a filled passenger ferry along with dozens of other ships are trapped in heavy ice in the Baltic Sea.

The ferry named the Amorella has 1,000 people onboard and is stuck off Sweden’s east coast, according to officials, along with other ships trapped in heavy pack ice.
The Amorella and two cargo ships trapped in the ice northeast of Stockholm with military hovercraft standing by to evacuate passengers if necessary since gale force winds are holding up an effort to free the ships.

According to sea rescue spokesman Peter Linquist there has been no one injured and there are no immediate plans to remove anyone from the ships.

According to the Maritime Administration the Amorella has 753 passengers onboard the 10 deck ship and 190 crew members. The Amorella ferry is owned by Viking Line, and its normal route of operations is between Sweden and Finland on Baltic Sea cruises.
The other ships that are trapped in the are include the Sea Wind ferry and have 32 people onboard the roll-on-roll-off ferry. The Regal Star is a cargo ship with 56 on board the ship. There were also three ships that were taken out of the ice that were broken free early Thursday.

There was a collision between the Amorella and the Finnfellow due to the ice, however there was no damage done to the ships from the collision, according to Lindquist the ice just pressed the two ships together and some of the paint was scratched.

In total there were approximately 50 ships trapped in the ice off Sweden’s east coast according to the maritime administration’s ice breaker service Johny Lindvall. He stated that the ice in the Baltic Sea is not uncommon further north, but rarely gets thick enough to trap ships in the Stockholm archipelago like the Amorella a powerful passenger ferry.

Linval said the passengers are not in any danger as long as there is food and beverages onboard the ship and Mats Nystrom a passenger onboard the ferry no one on the Amorella is panicking.

Nystrpom spoke with Swedish broadcaster SVT where he is a sports presenter and stated there is no panic on the ship and the passengers are in no danger. The most excitement they have had during the ordeal was when the Finnfellow pressed together with the Amorella due to the ice pushing the ships.

The maritime administration stated that the ships had ignored warnings about the dangers of the ice. According to Viking Line CEO Jan Karstrom the ships are able to handle this type of condition, however the wind made the difference since it was blowing toward the land and packing the ice more toward the land.

Along with Sweden’s ice breakers trying to free the ship, Finland dispatched an icebreaker to the scene to assist according to Benny Paulsson of the maritime rescue center located on Finland’s southwest coast.