Norwegian C-130 J Hercules missing over Sweden

Redleg

Redleg

The fire is everything
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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...ing-exercise/2012/03/15/gIQAIzcQES_story.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/norway-military-plane-goes-missing-during-exercise-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.
 
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
 
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..
 
Heat signatures in that area by now might just as well be reindeer or search patrols. :?

And a Sea-King being repelled by weather tells a grim story about the situation.
Most of those helicopters are of my age, but comparable to a flying mixture of tractor and bus, sturdy and stabile much like their crews.

And weather being bad, I've been told the Kebnekaise massive isn't less horrendous..

They're doing whatever they can on the Swedish side, while on the Norwegian side they are struggeling to keep volunteers from crossing the border and entering the search area.
Red Cross alpine groups has been on alert since yesterday, one group is on permanent stand-by on the border by Bjørnefjel ready to cross into Sweden when given permission to proceed.

I don't envy the CO who's tasked with keeping the 5000+ troops on exercise close to the border in leash, suppose there's a growing restlessness among those who can't do anything else than sit tight and hope.
 
84RFK said:
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.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought as well, since they didn't send a Mayday and the distress radiobeacon hadn't been activated.

But according to the Air Force today they should have been flying at least 1800m above the mountain area, at 13.000 feet, so it's still really a mystery what may have happened there...


The names of the missing crew has been made official today: :?
Bjørn Haug (40), Siw Robertsen (45), Steinar Utne (35), Ståle Garberg (42) og Truls Audun Ørpen (46)
And below here is a picture of the area where the plane is missing,
so you can imagine how difficult the search and rescue work is in really bad weather with heavy winds, snow and freezing temperatures there...

Google Maps of the area: http://g.co/maps/59wfk

1331902851084_823.jpg
 
Some Swedish newssource reported that the plane was last sighted on a military radar in a height some 100-200 meters higher than the summit of the north peak of Kebnekaise, but just prior to that a civillian radar picked up a signal at an even higher altitude.
That could indicate a rapid descent, possibly due to turbulence, but nobody knows for sure.

Can only keep our fingers crossed here.
 
Here's hoping that the SAR mission will be successful...and the R won't turn into "Recovery".
 
Thank's, we need som optimism here.

First of all I must correct myself, in my last post I mentioned the plane descending, but the reality is that the readings showed that the aircraft was actually climbing, but still near the summit of the Kebnekaise massive and just some few hundred meters above the highest point.

According to Swedish authorities the wind was meassured up to 250 km/h or 400 miles pr. hour in the area around the peaks, that's a pretty brutal hurricane++.

Earlier today one of the searchplanes reported that they had spotted a glimpse of orange about the height of 1800 meters through a small opening in the overcast, but was unable to pinpoint the location, take any pictures, or describe it more accurately.
In best case we're talking about a signal blanket spread out on the ground, but it's more likely to be a life-raft or other sea-rescue device that opens automaticly.

Latest TV reports came through, some vague reports of metal debris on both sides of the ridge near the summit.
I'l be back.
 
84RFK said:
Heat signatures in that area by now might just as well be reindeer or search patrols. :?
Click to expand...


Perhaps reindeers.
The search patrols are GPS fixed to avoid just this sort of missmatch with contacts that will use up valuable time.

Why would heat signatures not indicate survivors?
There are several ways a human being can survive in these extreme weather conditions even if the chances are dropping exponentionally with time passing.
IF they survived the crash they may very well be alive still.

My sources tells me they probably hit "Drakryggen".
That terrain are hostile on the best of days.
Never mind at hurricane winds.

This sort of thing shouldn´t be possible if you fly on TFR.(Wich the J variant are fitted with)
Chances are they have been flying it on manual override and gotten sucked down by downdraft over the ridge.

Search patrols in the area have got sufficient endurance untill Sunday.

KJ sends..

Edit to add:
The terrain around this area are often used by Subarctic warfare school.
The first responders and a few SF Teams were in the area rapidly but the weather make the search hard as it has to be done the the old manual way on foot and scooters.
No low level flying over the ridges has been possible.

THIS JUST IN:
Parts of the wreckage after the C-130J has been found on both sides of "Drakryggen".

My own conclusion:
We´ll be hardpressed to find anyone alive as the crash itself seems to have been violent enough to send wreckage over the summit of Drakryggen.

I hope to be wrong, but there it is..

Air assets in the area now are:
Mungo 41, US Hercules.
Saint 44, Norwegian Orion.
Dusty 311, Swedish Hkp 15.

At 30 min ready are a Swedish SuperPuma and a Norwegian Sea king.

AWACS are flying overwatch untill 24.00 Zulu+1
 
Last edited:
KJ said:
Why would heat signatures not indicate survivors?
Click to expand...

Mainly beccause any surviviors would follow standard procedure and take cover for the elements, utilizing tents, sleepingbags, and heatreflecting blankets in order to avoid exposure.
Not likely to make fire in the surroundings of a plane full tanked with jet-fuel either.

I must admit that Drakryggen struck me as a possibility too when I was looking at hte maps and sat-photos last night, and your theories about the sucktion over such a ridge sounds all too plausible.

The second last radar reading indicated a maximum height of 60 meters higher than the summit of Kebnekaise, about 7200 feet, the last reading was somewhere near 7600 feet I believe.
Kebnekaise should be about 7010 feet...not much clearance...

And the news about debris on both sides of the ridge Drakryggen (Dragons-Ridge) doesn't sound too good.

OK, Swedish ground personel has found some padding and a type of velcroband smelling of kerosine or jet-fuel.
They've declared a crash-site according to the news.
 
Last edited:
AFSteliga said:
Here's hoping that the SAR mission will be successful...and the R won't turn into "Recovery".
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that is has changed from rescue to recovery now..... :?

They have found the wreckage and it seems like they've hit the mountainside with high speed, thousands of parts has been found on both sides of this top now.

We've still not lost hope of finding survivors, but as you can see from this pictures the chances are pretty slim now....

Google maps: http://g.co/maps/ew8w3

c=9,9,816,509;w=738;h=460;33645.jpg
 
A released picture taken by a Norwegian SOF operator showing parts of the wreckage.. :?

1331984021004_870.jpg
 
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