Fw 200 crash at Lavangen

The Fw 200 crash at Lavangen was a major aviation accident that occurred on Wednesday, 11 October 1944 involving a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 C-4 Condor transport aircraft of the German Air Force near the municipality of Lavangen, in which 51 people were killed.

Crash

On 7 October 1944 Soviet troops began the Petsamo–Kirkenes operation to liberate Northern Norway from German troops, in connection with which the latter began evacuating auxiliary personnel from the northern regions of the Scandinavian Peninsula; reconnaissance aircraft were also used for this, including the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. On the morning of 11 October, Fw 200 C-4 with the tail code F8+ES (serial — 0163) departed Lakselv (Finnmark region) at 07:10 and 45 minutes later arrived at Kaamanen (Inari, Finland), where 34 passengers boarded, after which the aircraft returned to Lakselv, where it picked up another 15 passengers. In total there were 46 passengers on board, including 5 male servicemen and 41 female medical workers, and 5 crew members (the crew originally consisted of 6 people, but one of the radio operators decided to stay in Lakselv), when the “Focke-Wulf” departed for Trondheim (Trøndelag region).

However, when at about 12:45 aircraft F8+ES was flying over the Lavangen fjord, its tail section suddenly separated. Unable to continue flying, the aircraft plunged into the waters of the fjord, and all those on board were killed. In total 42 bodies were recovered, which were buried in the cemetery in Narvik. In terms of scale, it is the largest aviation disaster on the Norwegian mainland. It ranks second among the largest aviation disasters of the Second World War; it is the largest crash in the history of the German Air Force.