One of the most unlikely maritime rescue operations just took place on an Oslo fjord.
After a Tesla commuter inexplicably drove into the frigid waterway and began sinking, the captain of a floating sauna immediately came to their rescue, albeit at a meager pace and with the unlikeliest of rescue vessels.
“One of the guests came running and alerted me that a car had fallen into the water. Then I went full throttle at the people who came climbing out of the car," captain Nicholay Nordahl told Norwegian website VG.
“We arrived just as the car went under. With good help from two of the guests we got them up. They warmed up in the sauna.”
According to Nordahl, the water was only one degree, essentially right at the freezing point.
"When the car ended up in the water, two people were, it appears, inside," Oslo police said on social media. "They were pulled from the water by a floating sauna." Viral videos making the rounds on social media said the driver thought the car was in park when he accidentally hit the accelerator.
He also said that the sauna boat captain and the French guests onboard saved his life.
Both the driver and his passenger were met by emergency personnel when they arrived to shore with the sauna boat crew.
Surprisingly, the car was quickly retrieved, albeit by a tow truck onshore using an extended cable.
Photos showed the Tesla being lifted back onto land safely under the supervision of emergency crews on both land and water.
The car apparently drove off the quay at the Akershusstranda, a well-known tourist area in Oslo next to the Akershus medieval castle that's popular among visitors.
Vladislav Nikirov, who witnessed the incident from a close by wharf says: “It was luck that someone came to help them. If there hadn’t been people there, I’m afraid of what could have happened, they could have died.”
According to Marine Industry News UK, commercial floating saunas are becoming an increasingly popular activity for tourists in Norway. Private tours for 1-2 hours range in price from about £18/hour ($22 USD), while a boat rental for a group of 10 passengers averages about £120 ($150 USD). You can see footage of the rescue and recovery in the video below. You might also like:
