Military Plane Disappears over Sweden

[Debra]

It has been over 4 hour since this Norweigen military plane disappeared over Nth Sweden (part of a military training exercise between 14 countries). Reports are saying the weather was very bad, implying the plane went down, but a weather check for this afternoon states quite the opposite. Moderate breezes. See screen grab at end of this story.

It seems odd it has not been found.

Apparently 5 people on board.

http://www.thelocal.se/39694/20120315/
Norwegian Hercules plane missing in Sweden
Published: 15 Mar 12 17:57 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Updated: 15 Mar 12 18:50 CET
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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
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The aircraft was on its way from Evenes in northern Norway to Kiruna in the far north of Sweden when it went missing 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 military training exercise, the Norwegian Armed Forces said.

“On Thursday at around 4pm it was reported that a Norwegian military transport aircraft of the type C-130 J with five people on board had been reported missing.

“The flight took off from Evenes airport on Thursday afternoon and was flying to Kirune (Sweden) to pick up personnel there.

“The plane disappeared from view for air traffic control before reaching Kiruna airport,” the Norwegian armed forces said.

Swedish rescue service are leading the search operation. Rescue workers from northern Norway, as well as military units from both countries, are also aiding in the search.

Emergency signals from the plane are said to have been detected coming from the area around Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest peak, Lars Broström of emergency services in Kiruna told the TT news agency.

Track vehicles and other emergency response vehicles have been dispatched from Kiruna and other nearby areas in order to participate in rescue operations if needed, he added.

The five Norwegian crew members were travelling to Kiruna without any cargo, Norwegian army spokesman Rune Haarstad told reporters.

Two Norwegian rescue helicopters were forced to turn around due to adverse weather conditions, with strong winds in the area where the aircraft is believed to have disappeared.

“Danish and Swedish helicopters are being deployed in the search from the other direction,” rescue chief Björn Wrandel told Norwegian news agency NTB.

“Two Danish helicopters are trying to fly above the weather and the Swedish ones are trying to come in form the other side,” said Wrandel.

Swedish emergency response leader Jonas Sundin told the TT news agency that weather conditions had complicated search efforts.

"Unfortunately, there is some bad weather near Mount Kebnekaise, so the Norwegian emergency helicopters had to turn back," he said.

Exactly what happened to the plane remains unclear, but several helicopters are now engaged in a search for the missing aircraft.

"We don't know the condition of the aircraft of those who are on board. But we're looking for a crashed airplane," Norwegian military spokesperson John Espen Lien told Norwegian daily Verdens Gang.

The plane was around 80 kilometres west of Kiruna when contact with the aircraft was lost.

"It's a large and sparsely populated area which is now being searched by several helicopters," Fredrik Persson of the Swedish air rescue services told TT.

The missing Hercules was participating in a military training exercise taking place over northern Norway which was scheduled to run from March 12th to March 21st and included 16,000 soldiers from 15 countries.

Cold Response operations are joint exercises between NATO-member Norway and selected members of the Partnership for Peace network.

WEATHER REPORT 15 mars (is captured in the screen grab below)
over Kebnekaise - near Kiruna in nth Sweden.
http://www.yr.no/place/Sweden/Norrbotten/Kebnekaise_Sydtopp/

14703

[Ba-ba-Ra]

Interesting, keep us posted.

[Debra]

8 hours now Ba ba Ra No news.
There is a good ground of snow so the visibility would be pretty good, although it is overcast too.

[Debra]

Update from Swedish media (google translation of article below) on Svd Nyheter reveals that the norweigen defense minister released a media release prematurely saying the passengers were dead. But retracted in a few hours with apologies to families concerned. How this happened, I suppose adds further questions about this event.

Also, the swedish military are now maintaining that weather in the region is indeed very bad, now it is morning here. Again, there is still a question mark about the weather when the plane disappeared because checking with one meteorological reporting service for the time and into today (AM here) there is still a discrepancy. (sidenote: for mountain dwellers here in Sweden in the wilderness, this particular weather service is one that is trusted, over the swedish service especially along the border areas)

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.svd.se%2Fnyheter%2Finrikes%2Fherculesplan-saknas-utanfor-kiruna_6928323.svd&act=url

[noprophet]

More Info:

http://www.newsinenglish.no/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/libya2-e1331850501179.jpg

Norway's Hercules aircraft were used in last year's Libyan operation for NATO, among many other assignments. PHOTO: Forsvaret

All five crew members, four men and one woman, are Norwegian and identified as Ståle Garberg, Truls Ørpen, Bjørn Yngvar Haug, Siw Robertsen and Steinar Utne from the Rygge air station in southern Norway. Four of those on board were part of the 335th Squadron at Gardermoen, north of Oslo...

http://www.aviation-forum.com/Thread-Hercules-plane-missing-five-on-board-Views-and-News-from-Norway?pid=192393#pid192393

Wonder if they had anything interesting on board?

[Debra]

A good question noprophet, especially now that the mainstream media group here in Sweden are now providing a log of the search operations since the plane disappeared and constantly, throughout, making -for want of a better word- ´dramatic´ references to the state of the weather hindering the search in a 5-10 km sq range. Yet we have here search and rescue teams from Norway, Sweden and the UK all joining in with high end equipment. Now, I would agree that white outs at these altitudes are blinders, but in this report - below - there are a few points that do make you wonder about this operation, and thus question.

1. to shed some light on your question noprophet, whether there is anything interesting on board, it was reported at:
10:13 SVT team and other journalists on the spot has been banned from Kebnekaise mountain station. The reason is said to be that the Norwegian military need access to the area.

2. A few question marks around the radar readings and emergency signals - this is not clear at all. Firstly, the report states that:
10:23 Peter Lindquist, spokesman flyygräddningscentralen says to Western New: emergency transmitter has not worked on the plane, it is rare and therefore we do not know where to look.
Yet, report also states:
07:12 Man ends the search of the so-called "hotspot" that gave the ruling of the reconnaissance aircraft. It is found that the activity was not caused by the missing Hercules plane.
So, what was the said signal from?
And, a reconnaissance plane has also scanned the said area with thermal imaging camera.

3. The research station - Tarfala Research - that is located in the area is complying with the search operation saying it is only alpine rescue personnel who may be able to work in such conditions. Well, you work in that part of the world, you are trained to be able to cope IMHO.

3. It is of importance to add also, that mainstream media in Sweden is owned and run by the state. So, this again suggests an added veil is in place. IMO the story that is being told through the media is organised in compliance with the operation itself.

Anyway, these are some questions. And for the sake of the families effected by this, I hope they do recover the passengers, who it is said are trained to survive in arctic conditions. Link to google translation of latest story follows:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsvt.se%2F2.22620%2F1.2744882%2Fsokandet_efter_herculesplanet_-_minut_for_minut



More Info:

http://www.newsinenglish.no/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/libya2-e1331850501179.jpg

Norway's Hercules aircraft were used in last year's Libyan operation for NATO, among many other assignments. PHOTO: Forsvaret
All five crew members, four men and one woman, are Norwegian and identified as Ståle Garberg, Truls Ørpen, Bjørn Yngvar Haug, Siw Robertsen and Steinar Utne from the Rygge air station in southern Norway. Four of those on board were part of the 335th Squadron at Gardermoen, north of Oslo...

http://www.aviation-forum.com/Thread-Hercules-plane-missing-five-on-board-Views-and-News-from-Norway?pid=192393#pid192393

Wonder if they had anything interesting on board?

[Ba-ba-Ra]

Wonder if they had anything interesting on board?


Yes, anything interesting on board or anyone interesting on board. Were some of the military on board involved in a secret mission that the gov't doesn't want the rest of the world to know about?

Another thought - although might be too far out for some: Is is possible that slide into the realm of the Hollow Earth. It was always believed by many that Admiral Byrd had done that and then there was the Scandinavian fisherman (referring to the book "The Smokey God") who did the same!

[Turcurulin]

The plane has been found today. From the same link above (down the page a bit) -

Or from this one - http://www.thelocal.se/39718/20120316/


Rescue teams have located wreckage of the missing Norwegian Hercules aircraft near Sweden's highest peak, military sources confirmed Friday evening, as the search continues for the five officers who were on board when the plane disappeared on Thursday.

Bad weather slows hunt for lost Hercules plane (16 Mar 12)
Norwegian Hercules plane missing in Sweden (15 Mar 12)

The head of the Norwegian Armed Forces, Harald Sunde, told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK that Swedish rescue teams found pieces of wreckage smelling of aircraft fuel.

"Yes, the Swedish rescue crews have declared the area an accident site based on these finds," he said.

"We've received information from a Swedish rescue team that it smells like paraffin near the wreckage. We also have information from our own team that they can see the wreckage."

Swedish military sources also confirmed for the TT news agency that wreckage of the missing plane had been found near Mount Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest peak.

Swedish rescue workers leading the search operation in the far north of Sweden said the airplane itself had not yet been found.

“We have now managed to confirm that a Swedish unit at Storglaciären (‘The Grand Glacier’) has found a number of objects,” said the Swedish rescue services.

“They have found a padded object and a Velcro strip, all drenched in paraffin. Photographs have been taken and sent to the Norwegian army.”

Earlier on Friday afternoon, a Norwegian Orion search plane observed an unidentifiable orange-coloured object on a hillside by Mount Kebnekaise.

“The pilots who spotted it were lucky; there must have been a window in the cloud coverage. We sent a Swedish military helicopter up there just after but he saw nothing,” Peter Lindquist of the Swedish sea and air rescue services told the TT news agency.

The unidentified object was spotted on a hillside near Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest peak. There has reportedly been an avalanche in the area as well.

The Norwegian Orion plane will continue to circle the area while two Danish helicopters are joining the search. On the ground, the emergency services are working on getting rescuers to the area.

Problematic weather conditions, with strong winds and blizzards, are hampering the rescue mission for helicopters and ground-based personnel.

A Hawkeye aircraft is en route from Britain to help with the search.

”It is a surveillance and radar aircraft and we will link our communications through that. It will coordinate our helicopters,” said Tobias Nicander at the sea and air rescue services to TT.

According to Per-Olov Wikberg, coordinator for the Mountain Safety Council of Sweden (Fjällsäkerhetsrådet), it is difficult to rate the chances of survival in the type of harsh terrain where the plane is thought to have crashed.

“If you are uninjured, dressed correctly and have access to water, you might manage ten days,” he told TT.

”This is the most alpine terrain we have in Sweden. It is the very worst place to end up in this weather,” he said.

The missing aircraft is a C-130 J "Super" Hercules transport plane manufactured by Lockheed Martin in the United States.

The plane is one of four C-130 Js ordered by the Norwegian air force in 2007, the first of which was delivered in November 2008.

The discrepancy with the weather-reports is still odd, to say the least.

[Debra]

Although debris has been found, the reports about this are very patchy - I guess the weather is a hindrance at this time. And no evidence of the survivors have been found. There are still details about this case that no answers are forthcoming, and these pose questions, like:

a) a new plane goes down on a short trip from Oslo to Kiruna. WHY? What happened?
b) why did the norweigen defense claim it to be a crash so early, dispatching a media release, when there was no evidence. The plane had just disappeared off the radar and no emergency signals.
c) what was on the plane?
d) note also, each of the personnel were ranked Captains
e) this took place in a warfare exercise between 15 countries???
f) and, as I posted before, check out the weather for that location when the plane disappeared, in the OP,

Here is a link to a google translation of latest swedish report, much more detailed than english language media articles.
http://svt.se/2.22620/1.2744882/sokandet_efter_herculesplanet_-_minut_for_minut

[WhiteFeather]

There Must of been some Big Time Important Whistle Blowers On That Bad Boy Perhaps.

[sigma6]

Not exactly a small plane, and it's not like it fell into the ocean, and they were alerted right away... none of that adds up either ???

[Debra]

Fighter jets planned to 'attack' crashed plane

Hi sigma6, just discussing this with some people yesterday and your comment reminded me to take another look for any more reports of interest - beyond the first two pages of mainstream reporting.

This one (link below) might be of interest. It again highlights conflicting information that is being given about the purpose of this plane. Why? Read between the lines is all one can do at this point. However, the fact that this info appears in this particular publication - The Local in Sweden, written in english has some bearing, you could say, because it is not an alternative media site - plus it was one of the first to report the incident on March 15. So perhaps they whiff something too.

For the last week, the story has been that this plane was NOT part of the military exercise Cold Response, it was just being used to transport some equipment. Now, we hear that it might have been involved - that the pilot had elected to switch to manual operation to handle the plane through this terrain.

Also, still no word as to why the emergency signals of the plane did not automatically activate. Apparently, they are designed to give off signals for days afterwards.

I also have not seen any photos that show evidence of a powerful crash on the side of this mountain. You would think it would leave some mark. I don´t know but just a question.

http://www.thelocal.no/page/view/figter-jets-planned-to-attack-crashed-plane



Not exactly a small plane, and it's not like it fell into the ocean, and they were alerted right away... none of that adds up either ???

[Paranormal]

Has this plane been found? It must have an emergency beakon or transponder?

[Debra]

Yes, after a few days, they claim that parts were found. But the emergency beacon/transponder did not activate.


Has this plane been found? It must have an emergency beakon or transponder?

[Paranormal]

I have to say finding parts is not terribly convincing to me. Look at 9/11 at the Pentagon - I think parts were "planted!" But thank you for your reply. I will keep up with the latest news.


Yes, after a few days, they claim that parts were found. But the emergency beacon/transponder did not activate.


Has this plane been found? It must have an emergency beakon or transponder?

[Sophocles]

In this clip the term "killed in action" is being used as opposed to" killed in flight accident". The latter (KIFA) is used when personnel are killed in an aerial mishap that did not result from hostile action. KIA on the other hand is used to describe the deaths of ones own forces at the hands of hostile forces (wikipedia).

I then wonder why he use the KIA-term.

«Siv» - Killed in action (KIA) by hostile forces or KIFA which means 'killed in flight accident'?

lHtyIezjL6A

[Debra]

Good find Sophocles. This is an official statement, you would´nt think he is making an accidental slip. It sure stirs up suspicion.


In this clip the term "killed in action" is being used as opposed to" killed in flight accident". The latter (KIFA) is used when personnel are killed in an aerial mishap that did not result from hostile action. KIA on the other hand is used to describe the deaths of ones own forces at the hands of hostile forces (wikipedia).

I then wonder why he use the KIA-term.

«Siv» - Killed in action (KIA) by hostile forces or KIFA which means 'killed in flight accident'?

[sigma6]

stinks, just stinks, this is supposed to be the people who were on the plane that disappeared?... you are never more 'owned' then when you join the military... you are definitely the surety for the ALL CAPS NAME, ie. SMITH, JOHN... so when they say 'killed in action' it could mean anything... like they are taking those 'corporate entities' from public circulation, this has got to be a huge cover for something else... btw I hope I am reading this right, ie. plane disappeared, and people on board same... as in no plane, no evidence, and no bodies!?... it used to be that they would wait 7 years before declaring someone dead without evidence... someone in a hurry to get this paperwork done...?

[Kindred]

a) a new plane goes down on a short trip from Oslo to Kiruna.

I'll note that there has been a new large sinkhole in the Kiruna area...

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2040/107/Incredible_Images_Show_Giant_Sinkhole_In_Sweden_Keeps_Expanding.html