Viking Amorella caught by pack ice

Описание: The passenger ferry Viking Amorella and the roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry Finnfellow collided in difficult ice conditions off the Swedish coast near Norrtälje on Thursday. Difficult ice conditions off the Swedish coast have caused serious problems for shipping in the area.

According to the Swedish Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), there were 900 people aboard the Amorella and 84 on the Finnfellow. It said that the passengers were in no immediate danger. The Finnfellow proceeded on its way Thursday evening, and the Amorella was released from its icy grip later in the night.

The centre says the mishap occurred at 4.40 pm Finnish time, when heavy ice pushed them together amid winds of 15-20 metres per second. It occurred between the Tjärven lighthouse and the mouth of the Furusund inlet which leads in to Stockholm.

The 170-metre Amorella was built in 1988. It can carry nearly 2500 passengers and 450 cars. The Swedish-flagged Finnfellow, built in 2000 in Spain, is owned by Finnlines and operated by Finnlink.

Immediately after the accident there was discussion of evacuating the ships, but this idea was abandoned.

Severe ice and wind have been causing trouble all week for ship traffic between Turku and Stockholm. On Tuesday this week, Icebreakers had to help the Rosella, which was stuck in the ice.

Delays All Day

Heavy ice had already delayed passenger ferry traffic between Finland and Sweden on Thursday. For instance the Viking Isabella, due to arrive in Turku in the evening from Långnäs in the Åland Islands, was several hours behind schedule.

Viking Line has cancelled several sailings between Åland's capital, Mariehamn, and Kapellskär, a port near Norrtälje, about 80 kilometres north of Stockholm, and has changed the route of ships plying the Turku-Stockholm route. It says its ships on the Helsinki-Turku route have remained on schedule.

On Thursday afternoon, there were a total of five vessels stuck in the ice near Stockholm.

Ships operated by Tallink and Finnlink also had trouble with the ice earlier Thursday. Icebreakers helped the Sea Wind ferry get from Turku to Stockholm as well as the Estonia-bound passenger-freight carrier Regal Star.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute has issued warnings for near-gale force winds of 14 to 16 m/s on all parts of the Baltic west of Finland, as well as a warning for moderate ice accretion on vessels in the Northern Baltic.

Early on Friday morning, the ferry Amorella with 943 passengers arrived to Stockholm harbour after spending most of the night stuck in ice in the Baltic Sea. By mid day Friday there were still some 20 ships stuck in the ice, and the Swedish Maritime Administration expects it will take at least a couple of days before all of them are freed.
The ice is moving rapidly (5:02)

At one point during Thursday night there were over 50 ships stuck in the ice.

For the last days seven icebreakers have been working round the clock to keep the ships in the Baltic Sea moving.

The problems have been caused by strong winds that have pushed the ice towards the Swedish east coast, and packing it sometimes several metres thick. According to the Swedish Maritime Administration, this is the worst Baltic freeze for 14 years.

On Friday, Johny Lindvall, controller at the ice breaker unit of the Maritime Administration told Swedish Radio News that the captains of the ferries that got stuck by Kapellskär just north of Stockholm had ignored warnings from the Maritime Administration. But representatives of Viking Line claimed the warning had arrived too late.

Earlier Radio Sweden' Dave Russel spoke to Johny Lindvall, who said the ice is a real problem.

"About 85 percent of the trade to and from Sweden comes via the sea. There's a lot of industry in the north affected, particularly the paper industry, " he said.

"The ice wouldn't usually be a problem for the merchant ships, the problem now is that it's very windy, about 20 metres per second and that means that the ice is moving rapidly, there are lots of ridges with ice that's making it problematic for the ships, so they need help from the ice breakers to get back to the different ports," he added.

The winds are set to ease during Friday but the ice will stay for one to two months.