British European Airways Flight 530

British European Airways Flight 530, also known as the Mistberget Accident (Mistberget-ulykken), was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain's controlled flight into terrain, specifically into the Mistberget mountain in Eidsvoll, Norway, on 7 August 1946 at ca. 14:00. The British European Airways (BEA) aircraft was en route on a scheduled flight from London's Croydon Airport and crashed during approach to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen.

Three of the five crew members were killed in the accident and all ten passengers survived, though two were seriously injured, the remainder were able to walk away from the crash. The investigation found no faults with the aircraft, but cited a navigation error caused by a combination of insufficient training and shortcomings in the aircraft's low frequency radio range equipment.

Flight

The accident aircraft was a Douglas C-47A-5-DK Skytrain, c/n 12348 and registered G-AHCS, equipped with two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 engines, first flown in 1944, operated by British European Airways. The flight was a scheduled service from BEA's base at Croydon Airport near London to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. Gardermoen acted as Oslo's secondary airport to the more central Oslo Airport, Fornebu. However, BEA opted to use Gardermoen because it needed longer runways to operate the Vickers VC.1 Viking. The aircraft had a crew of five and carried ten passengers. Two of the passengers were Norwegian, the rest were British.

At 13:44, the radio operator asked air traffic control for permission to land using the low frequency radio range navigation system. Gardermoen confirmed, and noted that the Skytrain was the only aircraft in the area. There was no further radio communication between the aircraft and air traffic control. The aircraft passed the radio range station, located 8 km north of the airport and a few minutes later flew into trees on the eastern face of Mistberget at an altitude of 620 m. The aircraft plowed a 100 m long section of forest before it came to a halt. At the time the aircraft was heading southwards, parallel with the face. The commission concluded that the aircraft was under pilot control at the time of impact.

The impact of the accident caused the engines to be knocked off and they slid 20 m past the airframe. Debris lay scattered in the area, with a propeller blade found 50 m away from the craft. Three of the crew members, the captain, first officer and radio operator, were killed upon impact.

Two of the passengers who were unhurt, one British and one Norwegian, walked from the wreck to the farm at Askheim, where they were able to notify about the accident by telephone. A crew of rescue workers were immediately dispatched from Gardermoen. They remained at the site for about four hours; the time was needed to get the steward free from the wreck. He and a passenger were severely injured and were freighted by car to Stensby Hospital. The rest of the passengers were able to walk by themselves and were treated for shock and cuts.