A Quark Sea Spirit cruise passenger has been killed and three others  injured when a Zodiac that was carrying them in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard was hit by a wave, with all thirteen passengers on board the boat thrown into the icy Arctic waters.

The fatal incident occurred in the Krossfjord off Svalbard’s main island of Spitsbergen, with local authorities saying that it occurred as the passengers from cruise ship Sea Spirit were being taken on a sightseeing excursion along the northern portion of the Fjortende Julibukta, the 14th of July Bay in the Krossfjord, according to newsinenglish.no

The area where the incident happened is near the Northwest Spitsbergen National Park, north of both Svalbard’s administrative centre of Longyearbyen and the settlement at Ny-Ålesund.

Details of the incident are reported to remain sketchy though, as local officials try to determine how events unfolded before they received their first call for assistance at around noon on Monday, with emergency crews being told a woman had been injured in a boat accident in the Krossfjord and she was being examined by the cruise ship’s doctor.

Svalbard deputy governor, Lars Erik Alfheim, told local newspaper Svalbardposten, “The first report we got was that a woman needed medical treatment”.

“We therefore sent our Super Puma rescue helicopter with a doctor on board.”

“When the helicopter reached the cruise ship, the woman was dead.”

Three other passengers in the Zodiac, which is also used for ship to shore shuttles and excursions suffered what officials later called “minor” injuries, with two flown in the rescue helicopter to the hospital at Longyearbyen for treatment.

According to a press release from the local governor’s office on Svalbard, the authorities have not yet established the circumstances around the accident, with the woman’s cause of death unclear, but she lost consciousness during the accident, with her body sent for autopsy.

The governor’s office reported on Tuesday that witnesses told them the boat was hit by a large wave and tossed around, with all its passengers hurled into the water and later swept ashore.

The Sea Spirit  is operated by US Quark Expeditions as an “all-suite ship” in the luxury segment of the cruise industry, carrying a maximum of 114 passengers, with 15 of its large suites offering private balconies and the vessel approved for polar waters and offering cruises in both the Arctic and Antarctic, South Georgia and the Falklands, with the vessel equipped with rubber inflatable Zodiacs for shore transfers and excursions.

Source = e-Travel Blackboard: JAJ