As a result of the strong crash and the following explosion, the wreckage was scattered over a large area and buried in an avalanche. The search operations are very difficult and dangerous, as the terrain is very hard and the weather conditions in the area are often bad.
The Hercules C-130J military transport plane with five Norwegian officers on board was on its way from Evenes in northern Norway to Kiruna in the far north of Sweden when it went missing on March 15. The plane was participating in the Cold Response military training exercise. The aircraft was found two days later, on top of Sweden’s highest mountain Kebnekaise.
Two tons of wreckage has so far been found. This is only about five percent of the whole plane.
All parts that are found are transported down from the mountain and taken to a hangar in Kiruna, where they are marked, cleaned and sorted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board. The plane’s “black boxes” have not yet been found, Nordlys writes.
Lieutenant Colonel Truls Audun Ørpen (46), Captain Bjørn Yngvar Haug (40), Captain Siw Robertsen (45), Captain Ståle Garberg (42), and Captain Steinar Utne (35) were killed in the accident.
