The ''Bukken Bruse'' disaster was the crash of a flying boat during its landing on 2 October 1948. The

Short Sandringham The Short S.25 Sandringham is a British civilian flying boat designed and originally produced by Short Brothers. They were produced as conversions of the prolific Short Sunderland, a military flying boat that was commonly used as a maritime pa ...

was on a Norwegian domestic flight from

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

and was landing in the bay adjacent to

Hommelvik Hommelvik is the administrative centre of the municipality of Malvik in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located at the end of the ''Hommelvika'', a bay off of the Trondheimsfjord. Hommelvik is about southwest of the village of Muruvi ...

near the city of

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. The disaster killed 19 people; among the survivors was the philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

Aircraft

The flying boat was a

, registration LN-IAW and named ''Bukken Bruse'' after the fairy tale "The

Three Billy Goats Gruff "Three Billy Goats Gruff" ( no, De tre bukkene Bruse) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their '' Norske Folkeeventyr'', first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an Aarne-Thompson type of 1 ...

". The aircraft, operated by

Det Norske Luftfartsselskap Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S (literally "The Norwegian Aviation Company") or DNL, trading internationally as Norwegian Air Lines, was an airline and flag carrier of Norway. Founded in 1927, it operated domestic and international routes from 193 ...

(now a part of

Scandinavian Airlines System Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...

) was en route from Oslo's Fornebu Airport.

Crash

The weather in the area of the landing was poor at the time, and the sea in the bay of Hommelvika was foaming white. When the Sandringham was about to touch down on the water, it was hit by a wind gust; the pilots lost control and the right wing float broke off as it hit the water. The aircraft rolled over to the side and its nose ploughed into the water. The fuselage rapidly filled with water. Of the 45 people on board, 19 perished. The survivors were all in the smoking compartment at the back of the cabin, near the emergency exit.

Bertrand Russell's account

The 76-year-old philosopher

was on the flight on his way to give a lecture to the local student society. He was seated at the rear of the smoking compartment. In an interview with Trondheim newspaper ''

Adresseavisen ''Adresseavisen'' (; commonly known as ''Adressa'') is a regional newspaper published daily, except Sundays, in Trondheim, Norway. The paper has been in circulation since 1767 and is one of the oldest newspapers after Norske Intelligenz-Seddele ...

'' the day after the crash, he said that he was uncertain of what was happening after the jerk until the aircraft tipped over and water rushed in. In his autobiography he wrote that he had made sure to get a seat in the smoking compartment before the flight, saying that "If I cannot smoke, I should die". Russell was hospitalized in a Trondheim hospital.The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 512

Cause

The investigation found that the crash was caused by the pilot's loss of control during his attempt to land the Sandringham in a

crosswind A crosswind is any wind that has a perpendicular component to the line or direction of travel. This affects the aerodynamics of many forms of transport. Moving non-parallel to the wind's direction creates a crosswind component on the object and th ...

and rough seas with limited space available.

References

External links