On-duty navigator was allegedly asleep when cargo ship ran aground in Norway and nearly hit a house
Johan Helberg stands next to his house, with the container ship NCL Salten in the background, after the 135-meter-long ship ran aground in the Trondheimsfjord, outside Byneset, in Trondheim, Norway, Thursday May 22, 2025. Credit: AP/Jan Langhaug
OSLO, Norway — Norwegian prosecutors have charged a cargo ship's on-duty navigator after he allegedly fell asleep on duty and the vessel ran aground, narrowly missing crashing into a home.
The ship, the NCL Salten, ran aground shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday. No oil spills were reported, and none of the 16 people aboard was injured.
Johan Helberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he’d slept through the whole thing and only woke up when a neighbor started ringing his doorbell. Images show the ship’s red and green bow just meters (yards) from Helberg’s house along the Trondheim Fjord’s coast.
The on-duty navigator was the ship's second officer, prosecutor Kjetil Bruland Sørensen said in a statement. He was charged with negligent navigation; his name was not made public.
Crews on Monday continued to take containers off the ship so it could be more easily removed from the area.
NCL, the shipping company, said it was cooperating with investigators.
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