A Norwegian Hercules C-130 military transport plane with five people on board lost contact on Thursday afternoon with the airport in northern Sweden where it was scheduled to land

The aircraft was on its way from Evenes in northern Norway to Kiruna in the far north of Sweden when it went missing at around 3pm, according to local media reports.

"We don't know what happened. It's gone," an operator at Swedish emergency service SOS Alarm told the local Norrländska Socialdemokraten newspaper.

The plane was participating in a Cold Response training exercise, the Norwegian Armed Forces said.

http://www.thelocal.se/39694/20120315/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...QES_story.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/n...cise-1.3604888

In Norwegian:
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.8036738




I haven't got any more news/info about this other then what's in the press for now, so we can only wait and hope for the best.....
The nationality of the 5 crew members isn't known yet either, but they are most likely Norwegian.

I hope they find the pax and crew safe and sound.

Still haven't found the plane or the crew, but the hope is still there even if the chances of finding survivors isn't the best now...

The weather has been really bad up in the mountain regions of northern Sweden where they lost contact with the plane, so the rescue work has been very challenging so far.
The last report is that they've found heat signatures up in one of the mountains so the rescue work is focused on that area now.

It is confirmed now that there where 5 Norwegian officers on board the C-130

Hope and prayers to the aircrew and their families...

Our thoughts are with their families.

Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

Sorry to hear it.
Norwegians have some of the best training in Arctic survival, so perhaps there is still hope.

My thoughts are with the crew and their families.

Ruined my sleep last night by monitoring Norwegian and Swedish news channels, to no avail.
The weather conditions up there are difficult to say the least...wind force up to storm strength, heavy turbulence and regular blizzards makes the search operation hard.
Helicopters have been grounded due to weather conditions, and that is an indication of how bad the weather actually is now.
The helicrews of the 330 Sqd. is normally the last to call quits, they regard bad weather as a challenge more than a problem, and they are not the ones who will leave their colleagues of the 335 Sqd. out there in the dark for no reason.

At the moment air-search is limited to the 333 Sqd. ant their Orion while ground forces are trying to reach the area from different sides.
Last thing I heard was that local Swedish reindeerherders (Sami/Lapps) guiding the ground forces was grieving over the weather conditions, blizzards leaving them a visibility ranging from 20 to 0 meters.

The area of the search is difficult enough in good weather, Kebnekaise being the highest mountains in Sweden, criss crossed with deep valleys and high ridges.

As the C130J was taking part in a training excercise they may have practiced flying "tactical" in order to make a low radar profile by following the valleys and hiding among the peaks, the last radar contact was 14.55 local time near the summit of Kebnekaise in really bad weather.

No distress signal and only a weak signal from a distress beacon heard for a short timespan yesterday leaves little hope...but as hope is all we have at the moment we will stick to it.

Have just seen on German television that German and Danish SAR helicopters has taken over the SAR tasks in Norway so that the Norwegian helicopters can concentrate on the search.

Nice to see NATO cooperation works.

Yes, I just heard on the news that 2 more helicopters from the 330 Sqd. has been deployed to the search, and they are talking about deploying the 412's from the 339 Sqd. as well.
According to Swedish sources the RAF has contributed with a surveilance plane of some sort, and there's a massive effort by Swedish alpine-rescue teams and different volunteers, in addition to the official Swedish search teams.

They are trying to build up advanced bases closer to the Kebnekaise massive at the moment, but the weather is hampering those efforts.

The authorities are puzzeled (and worried) about the fact that no signals has been traced from the plane, given that the aircraft is brand new it should be properly equipped with the most modern systems.

Another problem is that given the time that has passed since the plane was reported missing, and the temperature, the engines of the aircraft will have cooled down too much to give any heat-signature by now...

A P-3 Orion picked up some heatsignatures in the search area at 06.07 Zulu+1 this morning.
The Sea king that tried to act on the contacts where turned back by weather.

Intel is scetchy, weather in the area horrendous.

Thoughts out to the families of the missing soldiers.

KJ sends..