Imagine waking up to find a giant cargo ship just meters away from your bedroom. That’s exactly what happened to Johan Helberg in Byneset, near Trondheim, Norway.
At around 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 22, Helberg was fast asleep when a 135-meter-long container ship, the NCL Salten, ran aground and crashed into his front garden.
“I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship,” Helberg told local media. “I had to bend my neck to see the top of it. It was so unreal.”
Surprisingly, Helberg didn’t hear the ship coming. Instead, it was his neighbor, Jostein Jorgensen, who first noticed the vessel speeding toward the shore. Jorgensen immediately ran to Helberg’s house to alert him.
“I was sure that he was already outside, but no, there was no sign of life,” Jorgensen said. “I rang the doorbell many times and nothing. It was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him.”
The massive vessel came frighteningly close to Helberg’s home. “Five meters further south and it would have entered the bedroom,” he added.
The Cypriot-flagged NCL Salten was carrying 16 people and was en route through the Trondheim Fjord to Orkanger when it veered off course and crashed. Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident.
Helberg later joked about the bizarre scene: “It’s a very bulky new neighbor but it will soon go away.”
Authorities are now investigating the cause of the crash. According to Bente Hetland, Managing Director of NCL, “We are grateful that nobody was injured. At present time, we do not know what caused the incident and are awaiting the conclusion of the ongoing investigation.”
Interestingly, the same ship reportedly ran aground once before in 2023 but managed to free itself without assistance.
