Maritime Accident News

More details emerge on cruise passenger’s plunge into icy North Sea

Recently we reported on a cruise ship passenger dropped into the frigid waters of the North Sea during a medical evacuation. The early reports of the incident were sketchy but now we are learning much more about the identity of the victim and her frightening ordeal on March 29.

73-year-old Janet Richardson became seriously ill and had internal bleeding while on a two week Scandinavian cruise aboard the Ocean Countess, operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. She was suffering from low blood pressure and dizziness when the captain decided to medivac her ashore, her husband George told the Associated Press.  

20 miles off of Bodo, Norway, the great-grandmother was placed on a stretcher and lowered approximately 25 feet down to a Norwegian Sea Rescue vessel. Suddenly, both vessels moved apart and she dropped into the water which was between 32 and 39 degrees F.

The vessels were not tied together and she was not strapped in the stretcher, her husband said.

She had to remain in the ocean so that the rescue boat could move out of the way in order to avoid smashing her between both vessels.

Richardson spent eight minutes treading water in her lifejacket.

She was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation aboard the rescue boat and spent one week in intensive care in a Norwegian hospital before being transferred to a hospital in her native England, where she still remains.

Norwegian police and coast guard are conducting a probe into the incident.

Source: Associated Press

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