A 62-year-old woman tragically died in a cruise ship sailing towards Argentina after a monster wave struck the vessel.
According to reports, the Viking Polaris cruise ship was heading towards the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina when the massive wave hit it, leaving one dead and four others injured.
The elderly woman was reportedly killed by a broken glass after the rogue wave damaged the cabin window, the Argentine Naval Prefecture said.
Speaking to WRAL News, a couple from North Carolina who were also onboard the Viking Polaris said: “It was just sudden, shocking, we didn’t know if we could get our gear ready for abandoning ship.”
They first thought that the ship hit an iceberg but the wave had been whipped up by the arctic storm.
Reports said that the Viking Polaris suffered minor damage and was later anchored off Ushuaia.
One of the massive waves hit the cruise ship sideways with full force, damaging the front backboard area of Deck 2.
“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident. We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies,” the company said in a statement.
Four other passengers “sustained non-life-threatening injuries” and received treatment onboard.
The Viking Polaris was launched in 2022 and is the newest ships in Viking Cruises’ fleet.
Designed for 378 passengers, the cruise ship is only two months old and was handed over to the owner Viking Cruises in September.
The ship sailed from Amsterdam to Argentina, where it has since been used for Antarctic cruises to and from Ushuaia.
This comes two weeks after two tourists tragically died on a different Antarctic cruise. The two men, aged 80 and 76, reportedly drowned after their inflatable Zodiac boat overturned near the shore.
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