By plane or by boat, pick your biggest transportation nightmare.
A cruise ship just off the coast of Norway has sent. a Mayday requesting emergency evacuation. After one of the boats engine’s failed, the crew is working hard to make sure guests are brought safely back to shore. Meanwhile, Boeing is suffering a massive drop in its stock (NYSE: BA). The aviation design company has seen weeks of bad publicity after two of its 737-Max 8 planes crashed recently, killing everyone onboard.
Viking Sky
One of the engines on the Viking Sky cruise ship just off the coast of Norway failed on Saturday, causing the massive boat to tilt in the rough waters. The ship experienced issues with its propulsion as a result of the engine failure. The problems were caused by the extremely rough conditions of the water. Wind gusts at over 40 mph with wave swells of up to 26 feet pushed the boat back and forth, causing dangerous swaying.
The cruise ship departed from Bergen, Norway, on March 14. The ship was on a 14 day trip around Norway’s coastline before heading to the UK to dock on the River Thames. The ship, which is operated by Viking Ocean Cruises, sits at around 47,800 tons. An evacuation of the ships 1,300 passengers and crew began today by air.
Passengers were lifted by air individually to safety. The process is slow and dangerous, as each passenger has to be hoisted into one of the five evacuation helicopters. As of 6 pm local time on the 23, only 100 people had been evacuated thus far. The conditions are very dangerous with high winds, which adds another level of danger to the evacuation process.
Although the ship isn’t in immediate danger of sinking, the crew issued the mayday to get the passengers safely back to land until the engine can be repaired.
Boeing
Meanwhile, air transportation is suffering an equally bad couple of weeks in terms of safety issues. When a second Boeing 737-Max 8 plane crashed in Ethiopia, killing everyone onboard just a couple of weeks ago, the company’s safety regulations began to be questioned. The first deadly crash of the 737-Max 8 happened last fall, when a Lion Air flight leaving Jakarta crashed minutes after taking off, killing everyone onboard.
A further study into what, exactly, happened with the 737-Max 8 planes showed a flaw in the plane’s safety features. The cockpits of the planes were shown to lack two key features that could have saved the planes from falling from the sky. It’s not that Boeing did not include the features in the plane, its that they sold them as extras. The two features that both of these planes were lacking was what could have determined that the planes engines had possibly stalled. The sensors were not included in the plane’s base model, so budget airlines like Lion Air opted out of them.
Although it isn’t clear how the planes crashed in the first place, the lacking features could be an indicator that the extra features were actually a necessity. Meanwhile, Boeing’s stock has plummeted nearly 15% in the wake of the tragedies. Despite that, experts still say that having stock in Boeing could be a good thing. Stocks are expected to go back up eventually, so maybe now is a good time to invest.
