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M / S Amorella is stranded in the Åland archipelago after deliberately running aground.
The Finnish Accident Investigation Board now hopes that the black box will respond to how the ship’s hull was opened.
– We will see exactly how the ship sailed before the accident, says Veli-Pekka Nurmi.
More than a day after the Viking Line ferry M / S Amorella ran aground, it is still stranded in the Åland archipelago. Now she hopes to be towed to repair shipyards in Turku.
Now what caused the ground connection must be investigated. Divers have found several holes in the hull.
– Drank water after grounding and then deliberately headed for land. It was very wise because it is very important to stabilize a boat that takes water. It is very serious to have several holes in the ship, says Veli Pekka Nurmi of the Accident Investigation Board of Finland, which is investigating the incident.
Similar accident in 2013
In 2013, the same boat was hit by a stranding, in the same place.
– Then he was hit by a power outage and could not be controlled. It is something else this time and now we will investigate it by obtaining information through interrogations as well as looking at the technical parts. Driving routes are very narrow and losing your way is very dangerous, he says.
According to information from Aftonbladet, the ship’s autopilot must have been updated at the time of the accident.
– We will definitely see how the autopilot has been used. But I cannot comment on whether or not it was. We will see exactly how the ship sailed before the accident and that is a very important part of the investigation.
The ship has also run on an ice buoy at the crash site.
– But that can’t be the cause of the ground connection, he says.
Photo: Jimmy Wixtröm
In mid-Sunday the alarm sounded that Amorella had run aground.
Photo: Jimmy Wixtröm
The ferry was heading to Stockholm.
Risk of layoffs
There were 207 passengers and 74 crew members on board the ship. A large part of the staff and all the passengers were evacuated from the ship with the help of other ships.
– We gather everyone in one room on the mainland and have since made sure to transport them all. Everything has gone well under the circumstances and we are happy that this never posed a great danger, even though everyone has individual experiences when something like this happens, says Eleonora Hansi, Viking Line’s chief information officer.
How are employees whose workplace is now paralyzed affected?
– I do not know. We already have many layoffs due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, we can now talk about new layoffs, but it is not something we have decided on, she says.
Photo: Jimmy Wixtröm
In the afternoon, all the passengers were evacuated.
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