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Norwegian military transport plane missing

A Norwegian Hercules C-130J military transport plane with five people on board went missing on Thursday afternoon between Evenes in Northern Norway and Kiruna in Northern Sweden.

Location

The weather conditions in the search area are bad, slowing the search for the plane.

The aircraft was participating in the Cold Response 2012 exercise.

Lieutenant Colonel Truls Audun Ørpen (46), Captain Bjørn Yngvar Haug (40), Captain Siw Robertsen (45), Captain Ståle Garberg (42), and Captain Steinar Utne (35) are still missing after air traffic control lost contact with the transport plane at 14:55 80 kilometers west of Kiruna, Aftenposten reports.

Strong winds and heavy cloud cover forced helicopters to break off their overnight search for the plane. However helicopters were back in the air by Friday morning, concentrating their search in three areas around Mount Kebnekaise (2106 m), Sweden’s highest mountain.

The ‘Siv’ C-130J was named on 17th August 2010 and was the last of a total of four new Hercules to be delivered to the Norwegian Air Force.