The cruise ship Horizon grounded on a sandbank in Geiranger Fjord, while entering the port in Stavanger, Norway. The vessel grounded by her bow into the sandy shallow without suffering any damages, but needed assistance for harbor tugs for refloating and further docking. At the scene of the accident were dispatched two tugs, which towed the vessel to safe depth and then assisted with maneuvering for berthing. During the grounding there were no damages of the ship’s hull and no breaches. However, the local authorities detained the ship for one additional day at Stavanger for further investigation and inspection of the seaworthiness.

The root cause of grounding is unknown, but probably happened due to human mistake and not complying with weather conditions. The vessel was arriving at Stavanger from Calais, scheduled to leave a little bit later en route to London, but the passengers received extra day in Stavanger during further inspection and investigation.

The cruise ship Horizon (IMO: 8807088) has overall length of 208.00 m, moulded beam of 29.30 m and maximum draft of 7.60 m. The deadweight of the vessel is 5,632 DWT and the gross tonnage is 47,427 GRT. The cruise ship was built in 1990 by Meyer Neptun Papenburg shipyard in Germany. The owner and operator of the cruise vessel Horizon is Pullmantur Cruises.