Emergency Call

The Sinking of Suðurlandið

On Christmas night in 1986, the Icelandic cargo ship Suðurlandið sank on its way to Murmansk. Óttar Sveinsson talks to one of the survivors, Júlíus Víðir Guðnason, in this episode of "Útkall" (Emergency Call). He and four of his colleagues survived an incredible ordeal aboard a nearly bottomless inflatable boat. The men stood in their dress clothes in sea water up to their knees, and sometimes up to their waist, for 14 hours while waiting for rescue. Six of their colleagues perished. Heiðar Aðalbjörnsson is the producer of the episodes.