Sirdal accident

The Sirdal accident (4 January 1946) was a Norwegian air accident in which a B24 Liberator bomber from the Royal Air Force on a training flight over the North Sea crashed into a rock face at Flæreheia (850 m above sea level) in Sirdal, southeast of Sola. The aircraft, with registration number KK331, belonged to the 111th OTU (Operational Training Unit) Coastal Command, and was stationed at an air base in Lossiemouth in Scotland. It left the base at 1300 hours, and according to Major Kaldager at Sola airport there was no communication with the aircraft, but based on statements from the local population the engine was misfiring in severe bad weather, so the crash may have occurred during an attempted emergency landing.

All eight English servicemen on board died, one of them on a stretcher on the way down to the village after the rescue crews had arrived. They are buried at Eiganes Cemetery in Stavanger. A memorial plaque was put up at Lunde Church in 1991.Bombs and ammunition from the burnt-out aircraft were immediately thrown into the water. Many of the wreck remains were moved in 2003 to Flyhistorisk Museum Sola, but apart from a rudder and an engine the wreck remains were returned to the site some time later, as they were regarded as a war memorial.