An American woman in her 20s has been found dead after the ship she was traveling in capsized off Norway on Tuesday.
A large rescue operation took place during the night off the Stad peninsula, located between Bergen and Ålesund. Helicopters, rescue boats, and several civilian vessels searched in high waves, storm winds, and darkness. The five people who could be rescued were picked up from a life raft by helicopter and are described as physically well, but the woman was found dead on Wednesday morning.
"In the morning hours, the Coast Guard in Bergen located the Viking ship and at 8:10 am, the missing woman was found a few hundred meters from the wreck. The woman was taken on board by the Coast Guard and pronounced dead at the scene," writes incident commander Morten Rebnord at the police in a press release.
Norwegian police have informed the woman's relatives about the situation.
The operation was completed early on Wednesday morning, according to the Norwegian Sea Rescue.
The accident occurred about ten miles from the coast. The ten-meter-long and completely open ship – a replica of an old Viking ship – had sent out a distress signal earlier in the evening. But when boats in the vicinity arrived, it was deemed not to be in danger, and the alarm was cancelled.
The ship was on its way from the Faroe Islands to Norwegian Ålesund, and was then to sail further to Trondheim. The people on board were foreign adventurers who intended to make a Viking-style sailing trip across the sea, similar to those made over a thousand years ago.
