Ferry Accident Shocks Norway

At first, passengers on the night ferry heard a bang and waited for the crew to tell them what was going on. About 45 minutes later, frigid water began gushing on board of the slick catamaran, and panic spread.

Survivors who plunged into the frigid ocean when the high-speed, ultramodern Sleipner sank Friday along Norway's western coast told of terror, chaos and a fight for their lives in an accident that killed 20 people.

Christian Hamre, 28, said a young girl screamed when a panicked old man with no life vest grabbed hold of her for support.

"He held onto us for a long time. Suddenly a girl shouted, 'He's pulling me down!'" Hamre was quoted as telling the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet. "We had to tear the man's hands away, and then we lost sight of him."

The cause of the disaster was under investigation.

The ferry, with 80 passengers and nine crew members, ran aground about a mile from shore on its regular 90-mile run from Stavanger to Bergen.

Eleven bodies were recovered quickly. Nine others were missing and presumed dead when the search was called off Saturday evening nearly 24 hours later.

"The rescue leaders now see no hope for finding more survivors. It is cold. There are large waves," said Elbjoerg Vaage of the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Center at Sola.

Twenty-three victims were hospitalized, one in critical condition. No names or nationalities were publicly disclosed in one of the worst such accidents in Norway since World War II.

The 138-foot Sleipner went down quickly. Passengers dove or fell into the water faster than life rafts could be deployed.

Passenger Haavard Rossland, 19, said he watched from the water as the ship's stern tilted into the air and then slid below the waves.

"It was like the film Titanic," he said. "I saw the Titanic before me."

Some strangers clung to each other for support, while others struggled to survive in water littered with life vests and up to 20-foot waves turned to foam by gale force winds.

"I clung to a girl in the water. Soon a third person came drifting by. We hung onto each other until a rescue boat found us," 21-year-old Bjorn Andre Helle was quoted as telling Norway's largest newspaper, Verdens Gang.

He survived 25 minutes overboard, just short of the 30-minute maximum medical experts said most people could live in the 48-degree water and heavy seas.

The Sleipner, put into service in August, set off at about 6:30 p.m. Friday on what should have been a routine trip. The vessel was equipped with the latest navigation and rescue gear.

The trip abruptly ended off the island of Boemlo, about 25 miles to the north and 250 miles west of Oslo.

At 7:08 p.m., the ship radioed Norway's rescue center that it had run aground and that "things are somewhat critical." Passengers said they heard a bang, but that the situation did not see serious.