On 15 March 2012, a
C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft of the
Royal Norwegian Air Force ( no, Luftforsvaret) crashed into the western face of
Mount Kebnekaise near
Kiruna
(; se, Giron ; fi, Kiiruna ) is the northernmost Stad (Sweden), city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norr ...
, Sweden.
All five people on board were killed.
Swedish air traffic control had given the crew a clearance that placed them outside controlled airspace and below the altitude of the surrounding terrain, a circumstance that went unnoticed to the crew. Contributing to the accident was the pilots' decision to configure the aircraft in tactical mode, despite not conducting a tactical operation. In this mode, the aircraft's
terrain warning system was inhibited, meaning the pilots were not alerted to the risk of collision with terrain.
Accident
The plane left
Evenes Airport
Harstad/Narvik Airport ( no, Harstad/Narvik lufthavn; ) is an international airport located in Evenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The airport serves the towns of Harstad and Narvik. It is co-located with Evenes Air Station of the R ...
at 13:40 and was scheduled to arrive at
Kiruna Airport at 14:30.
The aircraft was participating in the "
Cold Response
Cold Response is the name given to Norwegian led military exercises with NATO member countries and invited Partnership for Peace countries held in Norway every second year.
Cold Response 2006
The first exercises was the largest military exerci ...
" military exercise, which also involved forces from Germany, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. The aircraft appeared to have flown straight onto the edge
["Went almost clear of the mountainside"]
, ''Teknisk Ukeblad
''Teknisk Ukeblad'' (''TU'', en, Technical Weekly Magazine) is a Norwegian engineering magazine. The magazine has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway.
History and profile
''TU'' has appeared weekly since 13 April 1883 and was published by Ingeniørf ...
'' 19 March 2012. Retrieved: 7 August 2012. of the western wall of
Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.
According to a police spokesperson, the aircraft probably exploded after crashing, setting off an
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.
Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...
.
Human remains Human remains may refer to:
A corpse or skeleton
* A deceased human body
** A cadaver
** A Human skeleton, skeleton
Music
* Human Remains (band), an American grindcore band
* Human Remains (Hell album), ''Human Remains'' (Hell album), 2011
* Huma ...
were found in the avalanche area.
[
The radar plots show the aircraft maintained a straight course over the last 50 km of the flight until impact, in line with the planned route. The plots did not indicate tactical low-level flying, although that was an optional plan for part of the route if weather conditions allowed. Just prior to the crash, Swedish air traffic controllers at Kiruna cleared the Hercules to descend to 7,000 feet (2,134 meters). This altitude is just 20 meters above the height of the top of the Kebnekaise mountain. The altitudes for the continuous radar plots remained in the possession of the accident investigation board and were not released.
]
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules as 5630 (USAF serial no: 10-5630, c/n: 382-5630), a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was the last of four such planes acquired by the Norwegian military between 2008 and 2010 and was named '' Siv''.
The commander, 42-year-old Ståle Garberg, had 6229 flight hours, while the first officer, 46-year-old Truls Audun Ørpen, had 3286 flight hours. Both were considered to be experienced airmen.
Victims
A total of five people (a crew of four plus an extra officer) were aboard the aircraft when it crashed. All of them were Royal Norwegian Air Force officers and "among the most experienced" in the Norwegian military, according to the head of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The names of the missing were released by the military on 16 March 2012.
Timeline
* 13:40 The Norwegian Hercules plane takes off from Evenes in northern Norway, destination Kiruna, Sweden.
* 14:43 Radio contact with the plane.
* 14:5x The Kiruna Airport control tower had radio contact with the plane shortly before the last radar observation. The exact time and details or transcripts of this conversation were not published during the investigation.
* 14:56 Last radar observation of the aircraft just west of the 6950 feet high Kebnekaise mountain peaks, by civilian radar (Kiruna, distance ) at 7200 feet. Military radar at Sørreisa (distance ) registered last altitude at 7600 feet at about the same time.
Aftermath
Following the accident, a search effort led by Swedish rescue service was launched, but was hampered by snow, wind and cloud cover, impeding helicopter reconnaissance. Around 4 pm Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries.
CET i ...
on 16 March, a Norwegian P-3 Orion
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. . Footage recorded by the Orion plane showed what appeared to be soot and ashes spread over the side of the mountain. Through the use of search dogs, human remains were discovered and relocated for DNA testing
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
, and subsequently on 17 March the search for survivors was called off since it was believed that all five people on board had been killed and the aircraft destroyed. Efforts were refocused on an accident investigation
Accident analysis is carried out in order to determine the cause or causes of an accident (that can result in single or multiple outcomes) so as to prevent further accidents of a similar kind. It is part of ''accident investigation or incident inv ...
.
Investigation
The ongoing investigation is headed by the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority
The Swedish Accident Investigation Authority ( sv, Statens haverikommission, or SHK, in English formerly the Swedish Accident Investigation Board) is a Swedish government agency tasked with investigating all types of serious civil or military acci ...
with participation of the Norwegian Accident Investigation Board
The Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA; no, Statens havarikommisjon, SHK) is the government agency responsible for investigating transport-related accidents within Norway. Specifically, it investigates aviation accidents and incident ...
. The aircraft is considered to have been completely destroyed by the impact and the following explosion, and on 22 March work began on moving debris from the temporary investigative base in Nikkaluokta
Nikkaluokta () is a Swedish Sami village in Norrbotten County. The village belongs to Gällivare Municipality, bordering Kiruna Municipality, the closest urban area some 60 kilometers away. In its vicinity lie the areas of two Sami communities, ...
near the crash site to an aircraft hangar at Kiruna Airport, but efforts were still being hampered by adverse weather and the discovery of further cracks in the glacier on which the debris is located.["Telemark Battalion cleans on Kebnekaise"]
, ''Teknisk Ukeblad
''Teknisk Ukeblad'' (''TU'', en, Technical Weekly Magazine) is a Norwegian engineering magazine. The magazine has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway.
History and profile
''TU'' has appeared weekly since 13 April 1883 and was published by Ingeniørf ...
'' 6 August 2012. Retrieved: 7 August 2012. In August 2012 both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were found["Voice recorder found"]
, ''Teknisk Ukeblad
''Teknisk Ukeblad'' (''TU'', en, Technical Weekly Magazine) is a Norwegian engineering magazine. The magazine has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway.
History and profile
''TU'' has appeared weekly since 13 April 1883 and was published by Ingeniørf ...
'' 5 August 2012. Retrieved: 7 August 2012.["Flight data recorder found"]
, ''Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...
'' 12 August 2012. Retrieved: 12 August 2012. and flown to the United Kingdom where experts at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. It is also the Space Accident Investigation Authority (SAIA) ...
are aiding local authorities in salvaging data from the two recorders as Sweden does not have the expertise to handle flight recorders as damaged as the ones found in the wreckage. By 3 October 2012 NRK reported that data from the flight recorders had been successfully downloaded, and preliminary results have indicated that the terrain warning system was set for landing, so no warning was given before impact.
The accident report was repeatedly delayed, but was released by the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (Statens haverikommission) on 22 October 2013 stating:
In 2019 it became known that the flight crew did not have maps showing the height of the mountain Kebnekaise. The map they were issued had little or wrong information about the terrain in Sweden, because the Air Force lacked map data for Sweden. This was information that did not appear clearly in the accident report, but as an internal investigation by the Air Force, started after a former Air Force employee had notified about it in 2017.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norwegian Air Force C-130 crash, 2012
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2012
Aviation accidents and incidents in Sweden
Aviation accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain
Aviation accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
Aviation accidents and incidents caused by air traffic controller error
2012 in Sweden
Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed C-130 Hercules
Accidents and incidents involving Royal Norwegian Air Force aircraft
Kebnekaise
March 2012 events in Europe