Container ship lands shockingly close to home spot
A massive container ship ran aground and nearly struck a house by the shore in the Trondheimsfjord outside Byneset by Trondheim, Norway.
Alec Luhn, the journalist from Wisconsin who spent six days stranded on a remote Norway mountain before being rescued, said his family gave him the hope and will to survive.
“Just thinking about my wife, wanting to see her again, thinking about my parents and my brothers and sisters,” Luhn, 38, said from his hospital bed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” his first public interview since his rescue.
“That’s when I called on God and called on the universe to bring me back. I would do anything to be able to see my family again. And I just love them so much that, yeah, I want to make it.”
Luhn, a Stoughton native and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, was on a solo backpacking trip to explore the glacier at Folgefonna National Park in southwestern Norway in early August when he said his boot broke and he started falling down a steep, icy mountain.
He said he stopped only after slamming into a rock so hard, he broke his left femur and fractured his pelvis, along with a number of spinal vertebrae. His backpack — which contained a tent and a sleeping bag — survived the fall, but he said he lost his water bottle, most of his food and his cellphone.
He said he knew he wasn’t able to move and he needed to last four days, when he was scheduled to fly back home to the U.K. When he missed his flight, he thought, someone would notice he was missing. He was right. His wife, Viktoria Silchenko, reported him missing after he didn’t return home.
Luhn said that, without water, he was afraid he would die of thirst, so he resorted to drinking his own urine. On the third day, he said it began to rain.
“I remember, just like, literally licking up every drop of water I could get,” he said.
After enough time, Luhn said the rain turned into a powerful storm with gale winds and a torrential downpour. Luhn sheltered under his tent to avoid the freezing water.
On Aug. 6, after the severe weather conditions delayed the search efforts, Luhn was found by a rescue helicopter team. Over 50 people across various organizations — including the Red Cross, local police and an alpine rescue group — participated in the search efforts.
Luhn told “Good Morning America” that the first helicopter passed without seeing him, leaving him afraid he may have missed his only chance at being rescued. When it returned, he waved a walking pole with a red piece of cloth tied to it.
“I was just yelling and waving. And finally, the door of (the helicopter) opens and somebody waves back at me and that was the moment I knew it was finally, finally over,” Luhn said.
He was airlifted to a Bergen, Norway, hospital, where he was reunited with his parents and wife. Along with the broken femur and back and pelvis fractures, Luhn had severe frostbite. He’s still in Bergen and said he expects to continue recovery in Britain in the coming weeks.
In spring 2025, Luhn was a science journalist in residence at the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication and has plans to work on a project at the university in 2026, according to Kathleen Culver, director of the journalism school.
Luhn was on campus for a week in April and does remote work from the U.K., Culver said.
Drake Bentley contributed to this story.
