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. (Jan Langhaug/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Republished May 26, 2025 - 4:13 AM
Original Publication Date May 26, 2025 - 2:31 AM
OSLO, Norway (AP) — 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.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025