5.3. Practical challenges in connection with preparedness in Greenland
An additional challenge in Greenland is emergency preparedness. The only full-scale hospital is in Nuuk and it does not have the capacity to deal with large numbers of patients from, for example, a cruise ship with 2,000 passengers and crew. The nearest hospitals in the region are in Iceland and Canada and the nearest hospitals in the Danish realm are in Denmark, many hours away by plane. The emergency preparedness is limited to a small number of naval vessels of different sizes, helicopters and planes. In en emergency, the Air Greenland is obligated to support any rescue and evacuation operations with its aircrafts. In connection with the Viking Star incident from 2019, it was reported in the media that up to six helicopters were used to evacuate the vessel, each being able to transport 15–20 passengers at the same time. In total, the mission completed 30 loads in 18 hours.(1)See Danmarks Radio, Et krydstogtskib er i vanskeligheder ud for Norges kyst: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/et-krydstogtskib-er-i-vanskeligheder-ud-norges-kyst. It is questionable whether such capacity would be available at short notice if a similar situation was to occur in Greenland, for example next to the east coast of Greenland.
Even if the passengers and crew could be evacuated from the ship, transporting them elsewhere presents the next challenge: Air Greenland only has one large aircraft that can be used in an emergency and it has a capacity of about 280 people.(2)See Air Greenland, Fleet: https://www.airgreenland.com/charter/fleet/airbus-330-200. Furthermore, there is only one large airport, located in Kangerlussuaq in West Greenland, where this kind of aircraft can land and take off. Other Greenlandic airports can only cater for smaller planes.(3) Hanna Rasmussen & Birgit Feldtmann, Safe Navigation of Cruise Ships in Greenlandic Waters – Legal Frame and Practical Challenges International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation (TransNav) Vol. 14, nr.1 2020, page 211.
5.3.1. Survival chances
The climate in Greenland is cold, changeable and complex due to ever-changing ice conditions. This is also true during the summer season in Greenland when cruise ships usually visit the region. The weather can change rapidly from clear skies and good conditions to poor visibility and challenging conditions. The waters around Greenland are cold all year around and survival in the water is basically impossible. According to the Polar Code, a passenger must be able to survive at least five days in a lifeboat. However, a number of search and rescue exercises conducted in Svalbard (so-called SARex exercises), a geographical area that is comparable to Greenland, showed that the lifeboats have limitations and passengers would most probably die within five days. Participants in the first exercise SARex had to abandon their lifeboats after 24 hours because it was too cold and there was insufficient insulation on the bottom of the boat.(4) Knut Esben Solberg, Ove Tobias Gudmestad & Bjarte Odin Kvamme, SARex Spitzbergen, Search and rescue exercise conducted off North Spitzbergen: Exercise report. 2016, University of Stavanger. More recent exercises, called SARex2 and SARex3, have demonstrated improved technology and better insulation at the bottom of the lifeboats, but another challenge was fresh air. It seems impossible to maintain safe levels of oxygen in a covered lifeboat without opening “the roof ”, which in turn affects temperatures inside the lifeboat.(5) Knut Espen Solberg, Ove Tobias Gudmestad & Eivinn Skjærseth, SARex 2: Surviving a maritime incident in cold climate conditions, Report no. 69, 2017, University of Stavanger, and Knut Espen Solberg & Ove Tobias Gudmestad SARex3, Evacuation to shore, survival and rescue, Report no. 75, 2018, University of Stavanger.These examples from the SARex exercises alone show quite clearly that surviving in a lifeboat in Arctic waters for five days using existing technology is challenging to say the least. Furthermore, the SARex exercises were conducted in comparatively good weather and it is obvious that the chances of survival will be drastically reduced in poor weather and difficult conditions.
Another challenge relating to the survival of cruise ship passengers in an emergency is the physical condition and age of some of the passengers who need to be evacuated. The average age of passengers on cruise ships is rather high and it can be expected that some passengers will not be very mobile, making them much more difficult to evacuate.
A report from the Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board (DMAIB) from 2016 illustrates another challenge arising from the growing cruise ship market: not only are there more large cruise ships navigating in Greenlandic waters, but there are also a growing number of smaller tourist boats who make a living from providing activities specifically aimed at the cruise ship’s passengers. One of those smaller vessels, a boat carrying cruise ship passengers in Greenlandic waters actually sank and its 23 passengers had to be evacuated. However, there was no space on the deck of the boat where the 23 passengers could put on their survival gear. The accident report thus raises a general question of whether it is possible to evacuate the passengers from these kinds of vessels.(6) Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board (DMAIB, 2016). Marine Accident Report December 2016 INUK II Foundering on 14 August 2016.
Survival chances are also influenced by the fact that there is no obligation for the boats to have immersion suits for every passenger. In the SARex exercises, all test persons were dressed in immersion suits and it can be expected that the survival of passengers would be severely limited if the passengers were not wearing immersion suits. If a passenger fell into the water, their survival chances would be very low.