Hunt for missing journalist, 38, who missed flight home to UK after solo hike
A major search is underway for a missing UK-based journalist last seen setting off for a hike in Norway.
US-born Alec Luhn, 38, has not been seen since the afternoon of July 31. His wife Veronika Silchenko said he was headed on a solo backpacking trip from Odda, Norway, to a glacier at the Folgefonna National Park.
The reporter, who has worked for the likes of The Guardian and The New York Times, was reported missing after he failed to turn up for a flight from Bergen on Monday.
Bergen is a city in southwestern Norway around 40 miles northwest of Folgefonna National Park, which is popular with hikers from all over the world. Mr Luhn himself is an experienced hiker.
According to local media reports, Mr Luhn was on holiday with his sister and decided to embark on a hike that was due to last around four days.
Ms Silchenko said he had texted her his itinerary, The New York Times reported. She said it was not unusual for Mr Luhn to go on solo hikes and she did not expect to hear from him for a few days.
'We exchanged a few texts. He told me that he is going to hike and sent me a picture. He looked fine, the weather was fine,' she said to CNN.
She became worried late on Sunday when she still had not heard from him, however, and alerted authorities the next day. 'I just really want him back,' the worried partner, who is also a successful journalist, said to The New York Times. 'I can't sleep or eat properly. It's very hard not to know anything.'
Speaking to CNN, she said: 'I started to worry slightly on Sunday, but then I thought that it's Norway and it's totally normal to be out of connection in the mountains, so I (decided to) wait and … do something if he's not back online on Monday. On Monday, we decided that we need to call the services, because he should have gotten out of the park by that time and probably would have been able to find the internet. So we started really panicking.'
Now, a team of 30 searchers are looking for the journalist, along with drones, police and police dogs. The park is over 200 square miles across and bad weather has already halted search efforts.
'Weather conditions started to get really bad around midnight,' said Vestland police operations manager Tatjana Knappen. 'It was not reasonable to continue the search up in the mountains.'
Ingeborg Thorsland, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Red Cross, said the weather had made the search difficult. She said: 'Around 30 volunteers from the Red Cross and other organisations have participated in the operation. The search teams are local and familiar with the terrain, which has proven to be particularly challenging due to difficult conditions and demanding weather.'
Mr Luhn, meanwhile, is a climate journalist based in London. He 'loves nature' and has dedicated much of his work to climate change and 'the ice and the Arctic', Ms Silchenko said.
She called her husband 'a very kind and loving human being' who is 'very strong and adventurous' but not a 'fool'.
'Alec is my favorite person in the world, and I miss him a lot. I would like him to be back as soon as possible,' she said.
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