Four crew members of a Danish-flagged fishing vessel were picked up from a liferaft by a boat from the cruise ship AIDAnova after their vessel caught fire in the Skagerrak, between Norway and Denmark, on the afternoon of Sunday 18 October 2026. None of them was injured, the rescue leader at Norway's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for Southern Norway (Hovedredningssentralen Sør) said.
The fire broke out in Norwegian waters, roughly midway between Denmark and Norway, and the rescue centre received a distress signal from the boat. Rescue leader Per Ivar Austnaberg told the Norwegian newspaper VG at 15:10 local time that the boat appeared to be on fire and that smoke had been seen. Flames were seen later. The vessel had sailed from a port in North Jutland, the Danish broadcaster TV2 Nord reported, citing a harbour official.
From the liferaft to a cruise ship's boat
The four crew left the burning vessel together in a liferaft. A boat launched from AIDAnova then took them on board. At 15:35 Austnaberg confirmed that all four were safe.
A Norwegian rescue helicopter from Sola reached the scene at 15:23 and returned to base once the crew were accounted for, Baird Maritime reported. Denmark also sent a rescue helicopter. Christer Haven, a press adviser at the Danish Defence Command, said the Norwegian rescue service led the operation.
The Color Line ferry SuperSpeed 1, on its way from Hirtshals to Kristiansand, was asked to turn towards the fishing vessel, along with other ships nearby. It was released shortly after 15:30, once the crew were safe.
The fishing vessel has not been named, and the nationalities of the four have not been made public. The cause of the fire is not known, and the reports did not say what happened to the vessel after the crew left it.
What crews can take from it
The four got off together in a liferaft and were found quickly. Know where your liferafts are and how to launch them, and practise it in drills. On a small crew everyone needs to know every step.
A small vessel has few hands to fight a fire. Agree in advance at what point the crew stops firefighting and abandons ship, so no time is lost deciding.
The distress signal reached the rescue centre, and a helicopter was over the scene by 15:23. Keep your EPIRB, VHF DSC and handheld radios tested and within reach.
Rescue centres ask nearby ships to help. If your ship is called, a rescue boat crew that drills regularly can make the difference, as the boat from AIDAnova did here.
Cover photo: A Norwegian Air Force AW101 SAR Queen rescue helicopter at the Ådneram helipad, Norway, in February 2024. Illustrative photo, not the helicopter in this rescue. Photo: Kmoberg/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
Sources: VG: Fiskebåt sto i brann i Skagerrak: Danskebåten snudde (18 Oct 2026, in Norwegian), NRK Sørlandet: Brann på fiskebåt: Fire personer funnet på flåte (18 Oct 2026, in Norwegian), NRK Sørlandet: Nødsignal fra fiskebåt: Fire personer var ombord (18 Oct 2026, in Norwegian), TV2 Nord: Kutter brød i brand, men krydstogtsskib samlede besætning op (18 Oct 2026, in Danish), Baird Maritime: Cruise ship rescues four from burning Danish fishing vessel in Skagerrak (19 Oct 2026).
