The crew of AIDA Cruises’ ship AIDAnova helped rescue four fishermen after their vessel caught fire in the Skagerrak Strait on the afternoon of October 18th.
The Danish-flagged fishing boat was operating in Norwegian waters between Denmark and Norway when the fire broke out. All four crew members abandoned the vessel and entered a liferaft before a rescue boat launched from AIDAnova recovered them. No injuries were reported.
The cruise ship was sailing from Kiel, Germany, to Bergen, Norway, when it diverted to assist with the emergency. According to German cruise news outlet Schiffe und Kreuzfahrten, a boat was launched from the ship after it reached the scene, where the fishermen had already evacuated their vessel. Following the rescue, AIDAnova resumed its voyage towards Bergen.
Norway’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for Southern Norway coordinated the operation. Rescue coordinator Per Ivar Austnaberg told Norwegian newspaper VG that smoke and flames had been observed coming from the fishing vessel. At ~3:35 p.m. local time, all four fishermen had been safely recovered, according to Danish fishing industry publication FiskerForum.
The response also involved Norwegian and Danish helicopters. A Norwegian rescue helicopter dispatched from Sola arrived at the scene at 3:23 p.m. and subsequently returned after all four people had been accounted for, maritime publication Baird Maritime reported.
Color Line’s ferry SuperSpeed 1 was also diverted to assist but was released from the operation shortly after 3:30 p.m. and resumed its crossing once the fishermen had been recovered.
The cause of the fire had not been established in the initial reports. The nationalities of the rescued crew members had also not been publicly confirmed.
For more AIDAnova incidents and accidents, see the ship's CruiseMinus page.