2012 Norwegian Air Force C-130 crash
Royal Norwegian Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error and ATC error
From Harstad/Narvik Airport (EVE) to Kiruna Airport (KRN)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed Martin C-130
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 5630
- Operator
- Royal Norwegian Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Harstad/Narvik Airport (EVE)To Kiruna Airport (KRN)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 15 March 2012, a C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Luftforsvaret) crashed into the western face of Mount Kebnekaise near Kiruna, Sweden. All five people on board were killed.
Accident
The plane left Evenes Airport at 13:40 and was scheduled to arrive at Kiruna Airport at 14:30. The aircraft was participating in the "Cold Response" 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 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. Human remains 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 ft. 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.
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 75 km) at 7200 feet. Military radar at Sørreisa (distance 130 km) registered last altitude at 7600 feet at about the same time.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation was headed by the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority with participation of the Norwegian Accident Investigation Board. 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 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. In August 2012 both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were found and flown to the United Kingdom where experts at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch 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 Kebnekaise mountain. 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.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2012 Norwegian Air Force C-130 crash” (revision 1371234289, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2012 Norwegian Air Force C-130 crash
- Revision
- 1371234289 · 2026-08-25 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2010333
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2012 Norwegian Air Force C-130 crash" (page 35086536, revision 1371234289)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.