Crewmember of Danish Training Ship Killed in a Fall

[Brief] A crewmember of the Danish training ship Danmark died Wednesday in an accident during a shipyard period at the port of Assens, according to local police. 

The victim, a 23-year-old Danish national, fell while working aloft on a mast at about 1145 hours local time. He was taken to the nearby Odense University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 1320 horus. The accident is under investigation by Danish authorities, including Denmark's labor safety regulator and the Danish Maritime Authority. 

The Danmark is a three-masted, full-rigged school ship homeported in Copenhagen. It is owned by the Danish government and run by a maritime academy for use in training ordinary seamen. When under way, it has capacity for up to 80 students at a time. 

Falls are a periodic hazard aboard tall ships, and the accident aboard the Danmark is the second of its kind this month. In early February, a volunteer aboard the tall ship Elissa was killed in a 60-foot fall from the rigging while the vessel was berthed at Galveston, Texas. The victim was reportedly wearing a harness at the time of the casualty. 

In July 2020, a 19-year-old student was killed after a fall from the rigging of the Polish tall ship Dar Mlodziezy during a brief training-day sail from the port of Gydnia. The operator described the fatality as a suicide.