Cruise ship nearly runs aground in Sundahöfn, Iceland

A cruise ship carrying 2,500 passengers came alarmingly close to running aground in Sundahöfn, Iceland, last July. The Italian passenger vessel AIDAluna, weighing nearly 70,000 tons and measuring 252 meters in length, nearly struck a sandbank due to strong winds that pushed it toward the shore. The Transportation Accident Investigation Board has concluded its investigation of the incident but was unable to secure electronic data from the ship while it was within Icelandic territorial waters.

According to the investigation’s findings, the ship was only 15 to 20 meters from the shallows near Skarfagarður. Once it passed this point, it was approximately 17 meters away from the sandbank. Precise measurements of the distance from the ship’s keel to the shallow waters are missing, but it is believed to have been very close to a potentially dangerous situation.

This incident marks not the first near-miss for ships in Sundahöfn. In May of the previous year, the Norwegian Prima, a much larger cruise ship weighing over 140,000 tons and carrying 4,600 passengers, was just 10 meters from sandbanks as well. The worrying pattern highlights the need for increased vigilance in navigational safety in the area.