According to this article in the Washington Post, two Viking crew member were killed when they fail to retract the ships wheelhouse before going under a low bridge.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Oops. All river boats (cruise boats and the far more common freight boats) have retractable wheelhouses. They allow the ships to continue operating under low bridges when the water level is high, but to raise it to give good visibility the rest of the time. The wheelhouse is lowered so the bottom of the windows is level with the roof.
Photo here: http://www.express.de/image/1142640/2x1/940/470/61643c06c8e848e990503a815897c059/GA/01d-28-71-83992817-platz-jpg.jpg shows a container boat with its wheelhouse raised on a piston. When it is lowered they can't see over the containers in front.
It is fun to watch the boats approach a low bridge when the water is high. You think "that isn't going to fit", and then at the last minute the wheelhouse starts going down. There is no way to stop such a boat. This could have been human failure, or the mechanism could have stuck.
Posted by
OP
Lakewood, Colorado
19275 posts
The picture on the WP site isn't really clear, but it looks like the highway bridge before the railroad bridge is no higher (why should it be?). Maybe the inexperience crew member went under the highway bridge with the wheelhouse down and, not realizing there was another bridge, raised it.
Posted by
Oberpfalz, Germany
1389 posts
The last flights I have had in and out of the Nürnberg Airport I encountered Viking river cruise passengers coming and going and concluded that they were embarking/disembarking along the Main-Danube Canal. Seemed a little strange to start and end your Danube cruse in Nürnberg. Anyway Delta/KLM/Air France seem to have gotten their act together and there are no more 1+ hour lines at the Nürnberg Airport. Not the best situation when a full Viking tours bus arrives at the departure counters. I get there an extra hour just to miss the crowds. Very sorry to hear of the crew deaths and It had to be traumatic for those on the cruse.
Posted by
OP
Lakewood, Colorado
19275 posts
Looks like went under the highway bridge with the wheelhouse down, then popped it up immediately, not knowing there was another bridge right following the highway bridge.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9222 posts
There is nothing in any of the articles about this accident that says the wheelhouse went down and popped back up again.
They hit the railroad bridge that smashed the wheelhouse and then hit the 2nd bridge. The first bridge crushed the 2 crewmen. The wheelhouse was never lowered at all. That is the unanswered question. Why wasn't it lowered? People failure or technical failure? They hit the bridge full on.
Posted by
OP
Lakewood, Colorado
19275 posts
There is nothing in any of the articles about this accident that says
the wheelhouse went down and popped back up again.
No, there is nothing in the articles, but looking at the pictures, the front of the boat is under the railroad bridge and the middle is under the highway bridge. So, unless it was backing up, it had to have gone under the highway bridge first, and since the highway bridge is as low as the railroad bridge, the wheel house, if not lowered, would have hit the highway bridge, not the railroad bridge.
If you look at the picture of the remains of the wheelhouse, it is pushed back from the front of the retraction hole, indicating it was going forward at the time. In fact, the way it is damaged indicates that it was only partially up at the time of impact.