SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Vivian Ho
A man in Norway woke this week to find a 135-metre container ship towering over his home after it ran aground in his yard.
Johan Helberg slept through the initial impact of the NCL Salten as it sailed into his yard in Byneset, Norway, early on Thursday morning, Helberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. But after being woken by his neighbours ringing his doorbell, he looked out of the window to find the ship’s bright-green bow – quite a different sight from his usual picturesque views of the Trondheim Fjord.
Johan Helberg stands next to his house with its new garden feature – the container vessel NCL Salten.Credit: AP
“It was quite absurd,” Helberg said, noting that it had stopped just metres from his house.
“If it had hit five metres further to the right, it would have slid up the rocky cliff, and then my house would probably look quite different.” Helberg told NRK that the ship had cut a wire to his heating pump.
No one was injured when the 11,000-tonne vessel ran aground, said Bente Hetland, chief executive of NCL, the company that chartered the ship, in a statement on Friday.
There were 16 crew members on board at the time of the incident – a mix of Norwegians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians and one Russian, she said.
Police are still investigating why the ship ran aground, Hetland said, and have identified one person as a suspect. The ship’s second mate – a Ukrainian man in his 30s – has been charged with negligent navigation after he told investigators that he had fallen asleep while on duty at the time of the impact at 5.32am Norwegian time, police said.
Helberg said there could have been a different outcome if the ship had hit five metres to the right.Credit: AP
“The individual charged was the officer on watch at the time of the incident,” Kjetil Bruland Sorensen, the prosecutor in charge of the case in Trondelag police district, said in a statement.
The impact triggered a landslide, and the Norwegian Coastal Administration, which is overseeing the salvage operation, spent Friday conducting geotechnical surveys to ensure the area was safe, said Kristin Marthinsen Ballantine, an administration spokesperson.
The ship is owned by Baltnautic and flies a flag from Cyprus, NCL reported, which is responsible for the salvage costs and is working to refloat the ship.
“We are currently assessing the damage and have initiated an internal investigation into the root causes of the incident,” Hetland said. “The findings of this investigation will be followed up with measures designed to reinforce and further enhance safety on ships chartered by NCL.”
The ship remained embedded outside Helberg’s home on Friday as coastal authorities and the charter company assessed how best to safely remove it.
“This remains an ongoing rescue operation, and our highest priority is to ensure a safe and secure salvage operation,” Hetland said.
Salvage crews are working to remove the vessel from the shoreline. Credit: AP
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