The Norwegian cabinet issued on 14th December a press release stating that they early in 2020 will appoint a committee to study in detail emergency preparedness for large cruise ships along the Norwegian coast, and the possible actions that can be taken to reduce the risk of catastrophes.

This is in accordance with the proposal made by Professors Ingrid Utne and Jan Erik Vinnem in a meeting with the Prime Minister in May 2019 (see previous post), following the near miss of Viking Sky on Hustadvika in march 2019.

We are very pleased that the cabinet reached this decision. An NOU (‘White paper’) will be produced, this is a thorough report which is very good, the downside is that it usually takes 1.5 to 2 years before it is submitted, and the decision-making and implementation of possible actions also takes time.

We have therefore tried to argue for temporary measures to be taken in the meantime, so far without much success.