Viking Riverboat Hits Bridge, Two Crewmembers Killed

Mark T is correct.

To be direct: My speculation and the previous speculation have the same amount of evidence at this date and time.....Zero.

Not sarcasm.

Has it been confirmed that is or is not a hatch in the roof of Longship pilothouses? I've seen pictures that look like there are, but have never seen a picture of one open on Viking. If there is a hatch and if it was me a n the pilothouse, I'd have the pilothouse lowered well before upcoming obstructions (well before meaning while the boat could be easily stopped). We don't know that there was retraction failure, but we also don't know that there wasn't. If it was my life on the line, I'd think that would be the prudent course.

 

Thom

Thom, the Viking Longships do have wing bridges and a hatch.

steamboats

Onboard now. There is a hatch. Most "speculation" seems to be 1or 2 folks with an agenda. I'll report on wheelhouse visit when th Capt and pilots after cruise end. IPhone challenged

Will look forward to it.

OK, finally back with internet access. On our 4 October Rhine voyage Amsterdam to Basel, Viking Lofn offered a tour of the control cabin with the Captain. I'm an engineer and jumped at the chance. So many attended it was difficult to get questions answered especially since English was not the Captain's strength.

Yes there is a large top hatch for emergency? egress.

The pilot sits facing 3 large navigation displays with controls to his right.

Behind him is a conventional desk with a desktop PC and various desky things.

The pilot views one large traditional radar display and 2 digital displays. One digital GPS display highlights ALL Rhine ships' transponders so they can be seen well in advance. Note that radar does not see around river bends so the digital transponder GPS style display better informs the pilot of all oncoming traffic just around any bend.

While we were there the Captain called to a ship ahead off our starboard bow informing them that we wished to pass on their port side. That ship's Captain acknowledged and we proceeded. The Rhine was very shallow so the Captain complained that the thrusters could not work at specified efficiency giving him all the knots he wanted while passing cargo ships.

My photo of the cabin lowering mechanism won't upload but it's a simple heavy X frame that slides towards the bow lowering the cabin attached above.

1st photo is the pilot's view of the river.

The next few show all the displays.

Then the pilot's joy stick etc. controls and finally the conventional large radar display.

Outside to both port & starboard are separate small pilot stations used when transiting locks so the pilot gets an over the edge view of exact lock clearance.

Captains are under time pressure to make some long voyages between ports to arrive on time for tours to begin as scheduled. Locks and traffic backup at locks can be problematic. Our voyage was seamless at least as observed by us guests.

The tour was not the time & place in a large group to discuss the recent tragedy.

I'm at a loss to explain how 2 people who passed pilot qualifications could run into a known low bridge less than 1 Km from where they began their voyage with the control cabin raised. I'll leave it to the professionals, though I doubt we'll ever be told the story.

P.S. Better quality photos found here...

OK, finally back with internet access. On our 4 October Rhine voyage Amsterdam to Basel, Viking Lofn offered a tour of the control cabin with the Captain. I'm an engineer and jumped at the chance. So many attended it was difficult to get questions answered especially since English was not the Captain's strength.

Yes there is a large top hatch for emergency? egress.

The pilot sits facing 3 large navigation displays with controls to his right.

Behind him is a conventional desk with a desktop PC and various desky things.

The pilot views one large traditional radar display and 2 digital displays. One digital GPS display highlights ALL Rhine ships' transponders so they can be seen well in advance. Note that radar does not see around river bends so the digital transponder GPS style display better informs the pilot of all oncoming traffic just around any bend.

While we were there the Captain called to a ship ahead off our starboard bow informing them that we wished to pass on their port side. That ship's Captain acknowledged and we proceeded. The Rhine was very shallow so the Captain complained that the thrusters could not work at specified efficiency giving him all the knots he wanted while passing cargo ships.

 

My photo of the cabin lowering mechanism won't upload but it's a simple heavy X frame that slides towards the bow lowering the cabin attached above.

1st photo is the pilot's view of the river.

The next few show all the displays.

Then the pilot's joy stick etc. controls and finally the conventional large radar display.

 

Outside to both port & starboard are separate small pilot stations used when transiting locks so the pilot gets an over the edge view of exact lock clearance.

 

Captains are under time pressure to make some long voyages between ports to arrive on time for tours to begin as scheduled. Locks and traffic backup at locks can be problematic. Our voyage was seamless at least as observed by us guests.

 

The tour was not the time & place in a large group to discuss the recent tragedy.

 

I'm at a loss to explain how 2 people who passed pilot qualifications could run into a known low bridge less than 1 Km from where they began their voyage with the control cabin raised. I'll leave it to the professionals, though I doubt we'll ever be told the story.

 

P.S. Better quality photos found here...

 

Thanks for the pictures showing the inside of the wheelhouse. Pictures of the lowering mechanism are in post 95 of this thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51054982&postcount=95

Hello philw1776.

Thank you for your report and the photos.

Steamboats posted a link in post #163, out of which I have chosen this page: http://www.kreuzfahrten-treff.de/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9737&start=120 for the photo posted on 13 September of the Süderelbbrücke (North of Germany, not on a standard river cruise route). It will look similar in the canal, in the photo there is actually still room whereas on the canal all the railings are put down, as we know.

Sadly, in October a Canadian passenger on a river cruise ship (ship name not given it the report) was found on deck by a crew member with severe head injuries. It happened near Aschaffenburg on the Main and it was believed that he hit his head on a low railway line bridge. It happened late at night, probably the reason the accident happened without anyone noticing. The 74-year-old was taken to hospital.

As regards the Viking Freya: I have not found any more reports in the local news in the last few weeks.

In Binnenschifferforum.de http://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?41862-Viking-Freya-KFGS-07001954&p=314576&highlight=Viking+Freya#post314576 a gentleman very sadly reports that he has lost a friend in one of the two crew members killed. The last post shows photos of the Freya in the dry dock.

notamermaid

notamermaid,

Thank you for your informative contributions & updates