A rogue wave hit a whale-watching boat leaving Virginia Beach on Saturday, terrifying many of the 124 people on board and injuring four seriously enough they had to be taken to a local hospital.
The boat was operated by the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center on a scheduled two-hour-plus whale-watching trip. The Aquarium offers cruises Wednesday through Sunday to take visitors out in the ocean to see humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins.
At about 10:30 on Saturday morning, the boat was hit by a rogue wave as it was going out Rudee Inlet. Passengers said the boat launched about 45 degrees in the air and then crashed down.
“It happened very fast,” Kirsten McGrath told WAVY.com. “We were laughing and having a good time and then, boom! It just hit us like a brick wall.” The wave knocked Ms. McGrath and her husband to the deck. “After it happened,” she said, “all you could hear was screaming. There was this little girl screaming, ‘I don’t want to die.’”
After things settled down, the captain drove the boat to the nearby Virginia Beach Fishing Center, where first responders helped the injured passengers. The four who were taken to the hospital suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Read more:
