The body of an American archaeologist has been recovered from the sea in Norway two days after the replica Viking boat she had been sailing in with five other passengers capsized while they were on a voyage from the Faroe Islands, according to police.
The woman, identified by Norwegian media as archaeologist Karla Dana, was declared missing after the Norwegian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) rescued the other five people she was traveling with on Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for Norwegian Western District Police told CNN on Thursday.
The six were participating in the “Legendary Viking Voyage” project, which involved sailing from the Faroe Islands to Trondheim in Norway aboard the Naddoddur, a replica Viking ship, according to Sail2North expeditions, which organized the trip.
On Tuesday at approximately 5:45 p.m. local time, the boat sent out a distress signal, JRCC told CNN. After a delayed response, a rescue team arrived around 50 minutes later, where the crew onboard signaled that they were safe, prompting the team to turn back, the organization said. At around 8 p.m., another distress call was issued from the vessel, after which local civilian boats arrived at the scene and reported that the boat had capsized and five people were found on a life raft, the JRCC reported. The survivors were airlifted to safety at around 8:50 p.m. local time, they added.
The JRCC said Emergency workers searched through the night and found a body on Wednesday morning after weather conditions improved. Norwegian police said the surviving crew members included one Faroese and four Swiss nationals.
The US State Department confirmed the death of a US citizen off the coast of Norway.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” a US State Department spokesperson said Thursday.
In social media posts ahead of departure, Sail2North, described Dana, 29, as the youngest member of the crew who “embodies both the curiosity of a field researcher and the boldness of an adventurer.”
“This brave Explorer left this planet doing something she loved entirely too early,” the Florida chapter chairman of the Explorers Club, Joseph Dituri, told BBC News. “Her exploration spirit was evident in everything she did as well as her zest for life! It is a better world having had her in it.”
