Deutsche Lufthansa Flight 7

On 16 October 1944, a Junkers Ju 52/3mg8e on Deutsche Lufthansa Flight 7 deviated from its planned course and collided with a mountain in poor visibility about 120 km west-southwest of Oslo. This had been preceded by a failure of the on-board radio systems, which made it impossible to determine the position by radio direction finding. All 15 occupants were killed in the accident.

Flight

The aircraft took off at 17:50 from Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport bound for Oslo. According to the weather report, there was a closed cloud cover along the entire route, extending down to a height of 300 to 500 metres. In addition, according to the forecast, it was raining over the Skagerrak. When the aircraft flew over the island of Læsø, a radio direction finding was carried out by the ground stations in Denmark, which found only a slight course deviation. Bearings taken between 18:56 and 18:59 showed that the aircraft was around 24 kilometres northeast of Skagen. The pilots made radio contact with air traffic control in Oslo at 19:06 and reported that landing at Oslo-Fornebu Airport could be expected at around 20:00.

At 19:13 a Norwegian radio bearing made it clear that the aircraft's course was now deviating considerably to the west. A second bearing at 19:18 showed a slight course correction. The crew requested further bearings from the ground stations, but these could not be carried out because of insufficient power of the on-board transmitter and because of atmospheric interference. At the pilots' request, the radio beacon in Oslo was put into operation at 19:23 so that they could take their own bearing. Five minutes later the crew again asked for the radio beacon to be put into operation. This was the last radio contact with the aircraft. Subsequently, several stations in Denmark and Norway tried to call the crew. They received no answer, although the aircraft continued its flight for a further 58 minutes. To allow the pilots visual orientation, the city of Oslo as well as several airfields along the Norwegian south coast and in North Jutland were lit up.

Accident investigation

After the failure of the radios, the pilots lost their orientation and probably entered Norway west of the Oslofjord. At 19:32 an aircraft reporting post near Kragerø heard the noise of a very low-flying aircraft whose crew fired white flares. The aircraft flew on a northwesterly course towards Seljord, where a reporting post on the southern shore of Lake Seljordsvatn at 19:59 likewise heard the noise of an aircraft moving away in a northwesterly direction. According to residents, the aircraft then circled several times north of Seljord near the village of Flatdal with its landing lights switched on. The aircraft then turned onto a southwesterly course, as a result of which it flew from a northeasterly direction towards the 1,355-metre-high mountain Skorvefjell. After first touching the ground on a mountainside, the aircraft was dashed to pieces at 20:26 about 5 metres below the summit. The wreck was found on 19 October 1944.

The investigation commission considered it likely that the pilots assumed they were near Oslo and tried to establish contact with the ground stations by switching on the lights and by firing flares.