Havørn Accident

The Havørn Accident (Havørn-ulykken) was a German Junkers Ju 52 aircraft's controlled flight into terrain at the mountain Lihesten in Hyllestad Municipality, Norway on 16 June 1936 at 07:00. The aircraft, operated by Norwegian Air Lines, was en route from Bergen to Tromsø. The pilots were unaware that they were flying a course parallel to the one planned 15 to 20 km farther east. The crew of four and three passengers were all killed in what was the first fatal aviation accident in Norway. The aircraft landed on a shelf on the mountain face. A first expedition found four bodies, but attempts to reach the shelf with the main part of the aircraft and three more bodies failed. A second party sent two days later, coordinated by Bernt Balchen and led by Boye Schlytter and Henning Tønsberg, succeeded in recovering the remaining bodies.

Accident

The air service between Bergen and Tromsø was started by Norwegian Air Lines on 7 June 1936. It was operated with Havørn, a Junkers Ju 52, registration LN-DAE, which had been bought from Deutsche Lufthansa. On 16 June 1936 at 06:30 Central European Time, the flight departed from the water aerodrome in Sandviken, Bergen. On board was a crew of four and three passengers, and a load of 13 bags of 50 kg of post.

The aircraft's captain was Ditlev Pentz Smith, age 27. He had started flying for the Norwegian Army Air Service in 1930, and later become a civilian pilot for Widerøe. He was considered one of the country's most renowned pilots and was active with competition flights. He was assisted by first officer Erik Storm, age 32, who had a background from the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. The reserve pilot was Peter Ruth Paasche, age 21, and the radio operator was Per Erling Hegle, aged 28 and a trained mechanic. All four had been chosen to regularly fly the Bergen–Tromsø route. The three passengers were Inspector Sven Svensen Løgit, Consul Wilhelm Andreas Mejdell Dall and journalist Harald Wigum of Bergens Tidende.

The weather report, which had been delivered orally by meteorologist-on-duty of the Forecasting Division of Western Norway at the airport, stated wind from southeast at 5 to 15 km/h, overcast, and clouds down to 200 m, and possibly lower in some places. The visibility was 4 km. The last radio contact between the aircraft and the airport in Bergen was at 06:54, when Hegle reported clouds at 1000 to 1500 m elevation and between 4 and 10 km visibility. He reported that the aircraft held a course towards Krakhellesundet, which was the prescribed procedure during such horrible weather conditions, and that the aircraft was south of Sognesjøen.

However, the aircraft was not where the pilots thought it was—instead it was 15 to 20 km farther east. Eyewitnesses reported that after it had crossed Sognefjorden, it had changed course westward and started to ascend. At 07:00, a loud crash was heard, although there were no eyewitnesses to the crash itself. The aircraft had followed a parallel, but more eastern, course and had hit Lihesten, a mountain rising up from Lifjorden, at 600 m above mean sea level. The aircraft caught fire and was highly visible from the surrounding area. Parts of the aircraft fell to the foot of the mountain, and the wreckage was scattered across the base of the mountain. The controlled flight into terrain was the first fatal aviation accident in Norway.