Freak Wave Slams Cruise Ship, Claims Life of Passenger

A freakishly large wave slammed into a cruise ship off the coast of Argentina and claimed the life of a passenger, reports AFP. Four other people on the Viking cruise were injured, though details of the death and their injuries were not revealed. However, all four of the injured are expected to survive. Viking's Polaris ship was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina—part of its journey to the Antarctic—when what the cruise line calls a "rogue wave incident" occurred.

"We wondered if we hit an iceberg," passenger Suzie Gooding of Durham, North Carolina, tells WRAL from aboard the ship. "And there are no icebergs out here, but that's how it felt." It was "shocking," she added. The two-week cruise has now been called off, and Viking was helping Gooding and other passengers arrange unexpected travel back home. The National Ocean Service likens rogue waves to "walls of water" that form unexpectedly, noting that scientists are only beginning to understand what causes them. (The "most extreme" one on record was logged in 2020.)