The Hurum air disaster was an Aero Holland plane crash in

Hurum Hurum was a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. As of 1 January 2020 Hurum has merged with the municipalities of Røyken and Asker to form the new Asker Municipality located in the newly formed Viken county. The administrative centre of the ...

southwest of

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 of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

when a

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

which was carrying Jewish children from

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

who were to transit through Norway while immigrating to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

crashed as it was approaching

Fornebu Airport Oslo Airport, Fornebu ( no, Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu), was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redev ...

on 20 November 1949, killing 34 people, including 27 children.

Background

In 1949, the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...

signed an agreement with the Norwegian Ministry of Welfare under which 200 places in a sanitarium for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

patients was to be evacuated so as to be made available for Jewish children from

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

in the process of immigrating to the newly independent state of Israel. In April 1949, about 200 children from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

transited through the facility on their way to Israel, and this was to be followed by a group of Tunisian Jewish children. In Tunisia, which was then a protectorate of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Youth Aliyah Youth Aliyah (Hebrew: עלית הנוער, ''Aliyat Hano'ar'', German: Jugend-Alijah, Youth Immigration) is a Jewish organization that rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich. Youth Aliyah arranged for their r ...

emissaries had arrived after Israeli independence in 1948, and with the consent of the French authorities, selected children for immigration to Israel with the consent of their parents. Most of these children were from poor families. On 20 November 1949, two DC-3 planes of the Aero Holland company took off from an airport near Tunis. One made it safely to its destination. The other plane, with the

registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

PH-TFA, stopped at Brussels-Zaventem Airport to repair the radio before setting off for Oslo. On board that plane were 28 children, most of them 8 to 12 years old, and seven escorts and crew.

The crash

As the DC-3 approached Oslo, the pilot encountered heavy fog, and lowered the plane while still in mountainous terrain. Near Hurum, one of the plane's wings hit a tree. The plane continued another 60 meters and crashed into a mountain at 16:56. The force of the collision overturned the plane, blew most of the passengers out, and ignited the fuel tanks, causing the front of the plane to burst into flames. Of the 35 people on board, 34 were killed. The only survivor was 12-year-old Isac Allal. Allal's sister and two brothers were killed in the crash.

Aftermath

At midnight, Norwegian radio announced that contact with the plane had been lost and asked for the public's help. A search operation was initiated, and on 22 November, after 42 hours of searching, the wreckage and bodies were found. Allal was found, having survived the crash and stayed in the bitter cold on the site. The crash was the second deadliest air disaster in Norway at that time, exceeded only by the 35 deaths in the 1947 Kvitbjørn disaster. Public sympathy ran high, and the secretary of the Norwegian Labor Party, Håkon Lie started a fundraiser to build a Norwegian village in Israel. The funds were used in helping build the moshav

Yanuv Yanuv ( he, יָנוּב, , ewill Come Forth) is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Sharon plain near Netanya and Tulkarm, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lev HaSharon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Before t ...

. A memorial to the victims has been raised at the crash site. It is symbolically fenced and decorated with

Stars of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

. Parts of the wreckage are also at the memorial. In Israel, a memorial to the victims was built in

. Friends of Israel in the Norwegian Labour Movement ( no, Venner av Israel i Norsk Arbeiderbevegelse) raised money for it to be built.

Paul Engstad Paul Øistein Engstad (13 October 1926 – 13 May 2012) was a Norwegian writer and politician for the Labour Party. He was born in Sauda. He was a journalist in the Labour-aligned newspaper ''Arbeiderbladet'', and held several positions in the La ...

: ''Norsk arbeiderbevegelses samarbeid med Israel og innsats for fred i Midtøsten : Israel 50 år 1948–1998''. VINA Oslo 1998 Memorials also exist in

Netivot Netivot ( he, נְתִיבוֹת, "''paths''", ar, نتيڤوت) is a city in the Southern District of Israel located between Beersheba and Gaza. In , it had a population of . History Netivot was founded in 1956 and named after the bible: " ...

, and

Netanya Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate I ...

, and a kindergarten in Netanya is named for the children of Oslo.

References

Norwegian report on Norway's relationship with Israel
(in Norwegian) *

(in Norwegian) {{coord, 59, 36, 55, N, 10, 34, 31, E, type:event_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Aviation accidents and incidents in Norway 1949 in Norway Aviation accidents and incidents in 1949 Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas C-47 Skytrain Aero Holland accidents and incidents Hurum Airliner accidents and incidents with an unknown cause Oslo Airport, Fornebu November 1949 events in Europe Aviation accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Tunisian Jews Jews and Judaism in Morocco Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries Aliyah operations

Background

The crash

Aftermath

See also

References