Norwegian Wakes Up to Find Cypriot-Flagged Container Ship with Russian Crew in His Backyard

A Norwegian man woke up to an unbelievable sight: a 135-meter-long container ship, sailing under the flag of Cyprus and carrying a multinational crew, had crashed into his backyard.

The vessel, NCL Salten, veered off course, ran aground, and ended up lodged just meters from Johan Helberg’s home in the village of Byneset. According to The Guardian, the incident happened around 5 a.m. on Thursday morning.

The ship was traveling southwest through the Trondheim Fjord on Norway’s west coast, en route to the nearby port of Orkanger, when the accident occurred.

Helberg first learned something was wrong from a terrified neighbor, who had seen the massive ship plow through the shoreline and into the garden, narrowly missing Helberg’s house. When he looked out the window, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“I walked to the window and was stunned to see a huge ship. I had to tilt my head back just to see the top of it. It felt completely surreal,” Helberg told local media.

The NCL Salten, which sails under the Cypriot flag, had 16 crew members on board, including Norwegians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and Russians. Thankfully, no injuries or environmental damage have been reported.

Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the accident, looking into both technical malfunction and human error as possible factors. A first attempt to refloat the ship was unsuccessful.

The NCL Salten is a container vessel built in 2002. It was partially loaded and had departed from the Norwegian port of Averøy on May 21. Interestingly, this isn’t the ship’s first mishap—NCL Salten also ran aground in 2023, though it was able to refloat on its own that time.