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1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC-6 crash

May 11, 2023

On 18 September 1961, a DC-6 passenger aircraft of Transair Sweden, operating for the United Nations, crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia). The crash resulted in the deaths of all people on board, including Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, and 15 others. Hammarskjöld had been en route to ceasefire negotiations with Moïse Tshombe during the Congo Crisis. Three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash, which set off a succession crisis at the United Nations. A number of historians and military experts criticize the official inquiries, pointing to evidence of foul play that had been omitted from the inquiries.

1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC-6 crash
A DC-6 similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date18 September 1961
SummaryCrashed to the ground for disputed reasons: pilot error or external attack[1] [2] [3] [4]
Site15 km (9.3 mi) W of Ndola Airport (NLA) Zambia
12°58′31″S 28°31′22″E / 12.97528°S 28.52278°E / -12.97528; 28.52278Coordinates: 12°58′31″S 28°31′22″E / 12.97528°S 28.52278°E / -12.97528; 28.52278
Aircraft
Aircraft typeDouglas DC-6B
OperatorTransair Sweden for the United Nations
RegistrationSE-BDY
Flight originElisabethville Airport Congo
StopoverLéopoldville-N'Djili Airport (FIH/FZAA), Congo
DestinationNdola Airport (NLA/FLND), Northern Rhodesia
Occupants16
Passengers11
Crew5
Fatalities16
Survivors0 (initially, 1)[a]

Incident

 
Flight path of Hammarskjöld's aircraft (pink line) and the decoy (black line), September 1961

In September 1961, during the Congo Crisis, Hammarskjöld learned about fighting between "non-combatant" UN forces and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe. On 18 September, Hammarskjöld was en route to negotiate a cease-fire when the aircraft he was flying in crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjöld and fifteen others perished in the crash.[7] The crash set off a succession crisis at the United Nations,[8] as Hammarskjöld's death required the Security Council to vote on a successor.[9]

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in this accident was a Douglas DC-6B, c/n 43559/251, registered in Sweden as SE-BDY, first flown in 1952 and powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial piston engines.[10] It was flown by Captain Per Hallonquist (35); First Officer Lars Litton (29); and Flight Engineer Nils Göran Wilhelmsson.[11]

UN special report

A special report issued by the United Nations following the crash stated that a bright flash in the sky was seen at approximately 01:00.[11] According to the UN special report, it was this information that resulted in the initiation of search and rescue operations. Initial indications that the crash might not have been an accident led to multiple official inquiries and persistent speculation that the secretary-general was assassinated.[12]

Official inquiry

 
Dag Hammarskjöld, 1950s

Following the death of Hammarskjöld, there were three inquiries into the circumstances that led to the crash: the Rhodesian Board of Investigation, the Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, and the United Nations Commission of Investigation.[6]

The Rhodesian Board of Investigation looked into the matter between 19 September 1961 and 2 November 1961[6] under the command of Lt. Colonel M.C.B. Barber. The Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Sir John Clayden, held hearings from 16–29 January 1962 without United Nations oversight. The subsequent United Nations Commission of Investigation held a series of hearings in 1962 and in part depended upon the testimony from the previous Rhodesian inquiries.[6] Five "eminent persons" were assigned by the new secretary-general to the UN Commission. The members of the commission unanimously elected Nepalese diplomat Rishikesh Shaha to head an inquiry.[6]

The three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash that led to the death of Hammarskjöld. The Rhodesian Board of Investigation sent 180 men to search a six-square-kilometer area of the last sector of the aircraft's flight path, looking for evidence as to the cause of the crash. No evidence of a bomb, surface-to-air missile, or hijacking was found. The official report stated that two of the dead Swedish bodyguards had suffered multiple bullet wounds. Medical examination, performed by the initial Rhodesian Board of Investigation and reported in the UN official report, indicated that the wounds were superficial, and that the bullets showed no signs of rifling. They concluded that cartridges had exploded in the fire in proximity to the bodyguards.[6] No evidence of foul play was found in the wreckage of the aircraft.[13] The Rhodesian Board concluded that the pilot flew too low and struck trees, thereby bringing the aircraft to the ground.[14]

Previous accounts of a bright flash in the sky were dismissed as occurring too late in the evening to have caused the crash. The UN report speculated that these flashes may have been caused by secondary explosions after the crash. Sergeant Harold Julien, who initially survived the crash but died five days later,[5] indicated that there was a series of explosions that preceded the crash.[6][15] The official inquiry found that the statements of witnesses who talked with Julien before he died in hospital five days after the crash[16] were inconsistent.

The report states that there were numerous delays that violated established search and rescue procedures. There were three separate delays: the first delayed the initial alarm of a possible plane in trouble; the second delayed the "distress" alarm, which indicates that communications with surrounding airports indicate that a missing plane has not landed elsewhere; the third delayed the eventual search and rescue operation and the discovery of the plane wreckage, just kilometres/miles away. The medical examiner's report was inconclusive; one report said that Hammarskjöld had died on impact; another stated that Hammarskjöld might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed.[6] The report also said that the chances of Sgt. Julien surviving the crash would have been "infinitely" better if the rescue operations had been hastened.[6]

On 16 March 2015, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed members to an independent panel of experts to examine new information related to the tragedy. The three-member panel was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, the Chief Justice of Tanzania. The other two members were Kerryn Macaulay (Australia's representative to ICAO) and Henrik Larsen (a ballistics expert from the Danish National Police). The report was handed over to the secretary-general on 12 June 2015.[17] The panel's 99-page report, released 6 July 2015, assigned "moderate" value to nine new eyewitness accounts and transcripts of radio transmissions. Those accounts suggested that Hammarskjöld's plane was already on fire as it landed and that other jet aircraft and intelligence agents were nearby.[18]

Alternative theories

Despite the multiple official inquiries that failed to find evidence of assassination or other forms of foul play, several individuals have continued to advance a theory of the crash being deliberately caused by hostile interests.[12] At the time of Hammarskjöld's death, the Central Intelligence Agency and other Western agencies were actively involved in the political situation in the Congo,[12] which culminated in Belgian and US support for the secession of Katanga and the assassination of former prime minister Patrice Lumumba. The Belgian government had a vested interest in maintaining their control over much of the country's copper industry during the Congolese transition from colonial rule to independence. Concerns about the nationalisation of the copper industry could have provided a financial incentive to remove either Lumumba or Hammarskjöld.[12]

The official inquiry has come under scrutiny and criticism from historians, who point to a number of conclusions made which they claim were done to steer focus away from the assassination angle.[12][19] The official report dismissed a number of pieces of evidence that would have supported the view that Hammarskjöld was assassinated.[6] Some of these dismissals have been criticized, such as the conclusion that bullet wounds could have been caused by bullets exploding in a fire. Expert tests have questioned this conclusion, arguing that exploding bullets could not break the surface of the skin.[12][6] Major C. F. Westell, a ballistics authority, said, "I can certainly describe as sheer nonsense the statement that cartridges of machine guns or pistols detonated in a fire can penetrate a human body."[20] He based his statement on a large scale experiment that had been done to determine if military fire brigades would be in danger working near munitions depots. Other experts conducted and filmed tests showing that bullets heated to the point of explosion did not achieve sufficient velocity to penetrate their box container.[20]

The day after the crash, former U.S. President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjöld "was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said 'when they killed him'."[21]

On 19 August 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), stated that recently uncovered letters had implicated MI5, the CIA, and then South African intelligence services in the crash.[22] One TRC letter said that a bomb in the aircraft's wheel bay was set to detonate when the wheels came down for a landing. Tutu said that they were unable to investigate the truth of the letters or the allegations that South African or Western intelligence agencies played a role in the crash. The British Foreign Office suggested that they may have been created as Soviet misinformation or disinformation.[23]

On 29 July 2005, Norwegian Army Major general Bjørn Egge gave an interview to the newspaper Aftenposten on the events surrounding Hammarskjöld's death. According to Egge, who had been the first UN officer to see the body, Hammarskjöld had a hole in his forehead, and this hole was subsequently airbrushed from photos taken of the body. It appeared to Egge that Hammarskjöld had been thrown from the plane, and grass and leaves in his hands might indicate that he survived the crash – and that he had tried to scramble away from the wreckage. Egge did not officially claim that the wound was a gunshot wound.[24]

In his speech to the 64th session of the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2009, Colonel Gaddafi called upon the Libyan president of UNGA, Ali Treki, to institute a UN investigation into the deaths of Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was overthrown in 1960 and murdered the following year, and of Hammarskjöld in 1961.[25]

According to a dozen witnesses interviewed by Swedish aid worker Göran Björkdahl in the 2000s, Hammarskjöld's plane was shot down by another aircraft. Björkdahl also reviewed previously unavailable archive documents and internal UN communications. He believes that there was an intentional shoot down for the benefit of mining companies like Union Minière.[26][27][28] A US intelligence officer who was stationed at an electronic surveillance station in Cyprus stated that he heard a cockpit recording from Ndola. In the cockpit recording a pilot talks of closing in on the DC-6 in which Hammarskjöld was traveling, guns are heard firing, and then the words "I've hit it".[29]

In 2011, Who Killed Hammarskjold? by Susan Williams,[30] a University of London scholar of decolonisation in Africa, outlined several serious doubts about the accidental character of the plane crash in 1961. It led to the formation of independent, unofficial commission of inquiry in 2012 to provide an opinion on whether there was new evidence that would justify the UN re-opening its 1962 inquiry – the commission was headed by the British jurist Stephen Sedley. The Sedley commission's report was presented on 9 September 2013, at the Peace Palace in The Hague.[31] It recommended that the UN re-open its inquiry "pursuant to General Assembly resolution 1759 (XVII) of 26 October 1962".[32] Its findings formed the basis of the constitution of a panel of experts, and in March 2015 the appointment of Eminent Person Mohamed Chande Othman at the UN to support the ongoing Hammarskjöld Commission.[33]

In April 2014, the Guardian published evidence implicating Jan van Risseghem, a military pilot who served with the RAF during World War II, later with the Belgian Air Force, and who became known as the pilot of Moise Tshombe in Katanga. The article claims that an American NSA employee, former naval pilot Commander Charles Southall, working at the NSA listening station in Cyprus in 1961 shortly after midnight on the night of the crash, heard an intercept of a pilot's commentary in the air over Ndola, 5,300 km (3,300 mi)[34] away. Southall recalled the pilot saying: "I see a transport plane coming low. All the lights are on. I'm going down to make a run on it. Yes, it is the Transair DC-6. It's the plane," adding that his voice was "cool and professional". Then he heard the sound of gunfire and the pilot exclaiming: "I've hit it. There are flames! It's going down. It's crashing!" Based on aircraft registration and availability with the Katangese Air Force, registration KAT-93, a Fouga CM.170 Magister would be the most likely aircraft used and the website Belgian Wings claims that van Risseghem piloted the Magisters for the KAF in 1961.[35][36] A further article was published by The Guardian in January 2019, repeating the allegations against van Risseghem and citing further evidence uncovered by the makers of the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld, including refutations of his alibi that he was not flying at the time of the crash.[37][38][39]

In December 2018, the German freelance historian Torben Gülstorff published an article in the Lobster magazine, arguing that a German Dornier DO-28A may have been used for the attack on Hammarskjöld's DC-6. The plane was delivered to Katanga by end of August 1961 and would have been technically capable of accomplishing such an assault.[40]

Memorial

 
Hammarskjöld's grave in Uppsala
 
Grave in Mount Jerome, Dublin of Sgt Frank Eivers, an Irish Army soldier who was also on the plane.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial is under consideration for inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A press release issued by the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo stated that, "... in order to pay a tribute to this great man, now vanished from the scene, and to his colleagues, all of whom have fallen victim to the shameless intrigues of the great financial Powers of the West... the Government has decided to proclaim Tuesday, 19 September 1961, a day of national mourning."[11]

In media

  • The accident and subsequent investigation were featured in the fifteenth season and fifth episode of the documentary series Mayday (also known as Air Crash Investigation) titled "Deadly Mission", first broadcast in February 2016.[citation needed]
  • In the 2016 film The Siege of Jadotville, Hammarskjöld's plane is intercepted by an F-4 Phantom II[citation needed] aircraft, and it is implied that Katangese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe ordered it done, however the film ultimately leaves it ambiguous as Hammarskjöld's plane is never shown actually being shot down, only implied. The film is incorrect, however, in depicting the plane crash as taking place during the six-day attack by Katangese forces against Irish Army peacekeepers led by Commandant Pat Quinlan. In reality, Hammarskjöld died the day after the besieged Irish contingent had surrendered.[citation needed]
  • The 2019 film Cold Case Hammarskjöld details and dramatizes the investigation into Hammarskjöld's alleged assassination by Danish film director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl. The film concludes that Hammarskjöld's plane was shot down by a Belgian mercenary, probably acting as part of a plot with involvement from the CIA, MI6, and a mysterious South African white supremacist paramilitary organization, SAIMR.[citation needed][41]

Notes

  1. ^ All 16 occupants died as a result of the accident. Sergeant Harold Julien was found alive, but died about 5 days afterward from injuries sustained in the crash.[5] Reports differed on whether Dag Hammarskjöld or other occupants died immediately on impact, or might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the report of the Eminent Person relating to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him". United Nations. United Nations. 25 October 2017. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  2. ^ "What Really Happened to Dag Hammarskjold's Plane".
  3. ^ ""Air Crash Investigation" Deadly Mission (TV Episode 2016) - IMDb". IMDb.
  4. ^ "Experts solve 50-year-old mystery behind UN chief's plane crash". Toronto Star. 14 September 2011.
  5. ^ a b Lauria, Joe (19 May 2014). . Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 12 May 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k United Nations General Assembly Session 17 Report of the Commission of investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Mr Dag Hammarskjold and members of the party accompanying him. A/5069 24 April 1962. Retrieved 21 November 2008.(direct link: . Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2010.)
  7. ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma; Rocksen, Andreas; Brügger, Mads (12 January 2019). "RAF veteran 'admitted 1961 killing of UN secretary general'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  8. ^ Halberstam, David (19 September 1961). "Hammarskjold Dies In African Air Crash; Kennedy Going To U. N. In Succession Crisis". The New York Times. from the original on 9 April 2021.
  9. ^ Hamilton, Thomas J. (23 September 1961). "Interim U.N. Head is Urged by Rusk; His Timing Scored". The New York Times. p. 1.
  10. ^ "Airliners.net".
  11. ^ a b c "Special Report on the Fatal Flight of the Secretary-General's Aircraft" (PDF). United Nations. 19 September 1961. (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Hollington, Kris (August 2008). Wolves, Jackals and Foxes. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-37899-8.
  13. ^ Macarthur Job, Air Disaster Volume 4, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, 2001 ISBN 1-875671-48-X, p. 142.
  14. ^ . History.com. 9 February 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019.
  15. ^ "1961: UN Secretary General killed in air crash". BBC. 18 November 1961. from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
  16. ^ page 36 "The Spectator" 29 October 2011
  17. ^ United Nations (12 June 2015). "Ban receives report probing new information on Dag Hammarskjöld's death". UN News Centre. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  18. ^ "Panel: Possible Aerial Attack on Hammarskjold Plane in 1961". The New York Times. Associated Press. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  19. ^ Matthew Hughes (9 August 2001). . London Review of Books. 23 (15): 33–34. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  20. ^ a b Arthur Gavshon (1962). The Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjold. New York: Walker and Company. p. 58.
  21. ^ Jamie Doward, "Spy messages could finally solve mystery of UN chief’s death crash", The Guardian 13 December 2014.
  22. ^ "Notes for Media Briefing By Archbishop" – by Desmond Tutu, Chairperson of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission – 19 August 1998 – . Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  23. ^ "UN assassination plot denied". news.bbc.co.uk. 19 August 1998. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  24. ^ Cato Guhnfeldt (1 January 1970). [The holes in the forehead] (in Norwegian). Aftenposten.no. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  25. ^ . 23 September 2009. Archived from the original on 29 November 2019.
  26. ^ "Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down". The Guardian. 17 August 2011. from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  27. ^ Björkdahl, Göran (17 August 2011). "I have no doubt Dag Hammarskjöld's plane was brought down". The Guardian. from the original on 26 March 2021.
  28. ^ Julian Borger (16 September 2011). "Call for new inquiry following emergence of new evidence". Guardian. from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  29. ^ "Dag Hammarskjold: Was His Death a Crash or a Conspiracy?". bbc.co.uk. 18 September 2011. from the original on 9 March 2021.
  30. ^ Susan Williams: Who Killed Hammarskjöld?: The UN, the Cold War, and White Supremacy in Africa. London: Hurst. First edition 2011, 2nd edition with an additional chapter co-authored with Henning Melber and David Wardrop, December 2016.
  31. ^ Richard J. Goldstone. "Hammarskjold Commission Presents Report on Secretary-General's Death to the United Nations. International Judicial Monitor, Summer 2013 Issue". from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  32. ^ "Dag Hammarskjold death: UN 'should reopen inquiry'". BBC News. 9 September 2013. from the original on 26 January 2021.
  33. ^ "Background". The Hammarskjöld Commission. from the original on 7 November 2020.
  34. ^ "Distance from Ndola, Zambia to Nicosia, Cyprus".
  35. ^ Borger, Julian (17 August 2011). "Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down". The Guardian. from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  36. ^ Borger, Julian (4 April 2014). "Dag Hammarskjöld's plane may have been shot down, ambassador warned". The Guardian. from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  37. ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma; Rocksen, Andreas; Brügger, Mads (12 January 2019). "RAF veteran 'admitted 1961 killing of UN secretary general'". The Guardian. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  38. ^ Mikkonen, Minttu (13 January 2019). "Tuore dokumentti väittää ratkaisseensa yhden kylmän sodan ajan suurimmista arvoituksista: Palkkasoturi tunnusti ampuneensa alas YK:n pääsihteerin Dag Hammarskjöldin" [A new documentary claims one of the biggest puzzles of the Cold War era has been solved: A mercenary confessed to having shot down UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 31 January 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  39. ^ "Cold Case Hammarskjöld". sundance.org. Sundance Institute. from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  40. ^ Gülstorff, Torben (Winter 2018). "German links to the Hammarskjöld case. Making the case for another possible murder weapon" (PDF). Lobster. 76. (PDF) from the original on 4 January 2021.
  41. ^ Brügger, Mads (director) (26 January 2019). Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Motion Picture).

External links

  • on UN Archives website.
  • and BBC

May 11, 2023
1961, ndola, transair, sweden, crash, september, 1961, passenger, aircraft, transair, sweden, operating, united, nations, crashed, near, ndola, northern, rhodesia, present, zambia, crash, resulted, deaths, people, board, including, hammarskjöld, second, secret. On 18 September 1961 a DC 6 passenger aircraft of Transair Sweden operating for the United Nations crashed near Ndola Northern Rhodesia present day Zambia The crash resulted in the deaths of all people on board including Dag Hammarskjold the second Secretary General of the United Nations and 15 others Hammarskjold had been en route to ceasefire negotiations with Moise Tshombe during the Congo Crisis Three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash which set off a succession crisis at the United Nations A number of historians and military experts criticize the official inquiries pointing to evidence of foul play that had been omitted from the inquiries 1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC 6 crashA DC 6 similar to the accident aircraftAccidentDate18 September 1961SummaryCrashed to the ground for disputed reasons pilot error or external attack 1 2 3 4 Site15 km 9 3 mi W of Ndola Airport NLA Zambia 12 58 31 S 28 31 22 E 12 97528 S 28 52278 E 12 97528 28 52278 Coordinates 12 58 31 S 28 31 22 E 12 97528 S 28 52278 E 12 97528 28 52278AircraftAircraft typeDouglas DC 6BOperatorTransair Sweden for the United NationsRegistrationSE BDYFlight originElisabethville Airport CongoStopoverLeopoldville N Djili Airport FIH FZAA CongoDestinationNdola Airport NLA FLND Northern RhodesiaOccupants16Passengers11Crew5Fatalities16Survivors0 initially 1 a Contents 1 Incident 2 Aircraft and crew 3 UN special report 4 Official inquiry 5 Alternative theories 6 Memorial 7 In media 8 Notes 9 References 10 External linksIncident Edit Flight path of Hammarskjold s aircraft pink line and the decoy black line September 1961 In September 1961 during the Congo Crisis Hammarskjold learned about fighting between non combatant UN forces and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe On 18 September Hammarskjold was en route to negotiate a cease fire when the aircraft he was flying in crashed near Ndola Northern Rhodesia now Zambia Hammarskjold and fifteen others perished in the crash 7 The crash set off a succession crisis at the United Nations 8 as Hammarskjold s death required the Security Council to vote on a successor 9 Aircraft and crew EditThe aircraft involved in this accident was a Douglas DC 6B c n 43559 251 registered in Sweden as SE BDY first flown in 1952 and powered by four Pratt amp Whitney R 2800 18 cylinder radial piston engines 10 It was flown by Captain Per Hallonquist 35 First Officer Lars Litton 29 and Flight Engineer Nils Goran Wilhelmsson 11 UN special report EditA special report issued by the United Nations following the crash stated that a bright flash in the sky was seen at approximately 01 00 11 According to the UN special report it was this information that resulted in the initiation of search and rescue operations Initial indications that the crash might not have been an accident led to multiple official inquiries and persistent speculation that the secretary general was assassinated 12 Official inquiry Edit Dag Hammarskjold 1950s Following the death of Hammarskjold there were three inquiries into the circumstances that led to the crash the Rhodesian Board of Investigation the Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry and the United Nations Commission of Investigation 6 The Rhodesian Board of Investigation looked into the matter between 19 September 1961 and 2 November 1961 6 under the command of Lt Colonel M C B Barber The Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Sir John Clayden held hearings from 16 29 January 1962 without United Nations oversight The subsequent United Nations Commission of Investigation held a series of hearings in 1962 and in part depended upon the testimony from the previous Rhodesian inquiries 6 Five eminent persons were assigned by the new secretary general to the UN Commission The members of the commission unanimously elected Nepalese diplomat Rishikesh Shaha to head an inquiry 6 The three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash that led to the death of Hammarskjold The Rhodesian Board of Investigation sent 180 men to search a six square kilometer area of the last sector of the aircraft s flight path looking for evidence as to the cause of the crash No evidence of a bomb surface to air missile or hijacking was found The official report stated that two of the dead Swedish bodyguards had suffered multiple bullet wounds Medical examination performed by the initial Rhodesian Board of Investigation and reported in the UN official report indicated that the wounds were superficial and that the bullets showed no signs of rifling They concluded that cartridges had exploded in the fire in proximity to the bodyguards 6 No evidence of foul play was found in the wreckage of the aircraft 13 The Rhodesian Board concluded that the pilot flew too low and struck trees thereby bringing the aircraft to the ground 14 Previous accounts of a bright flash in the sky were dismissed as occurring too late in the evening to have caused the crash The UN report speculated that these flashes may have been caused by secondary explosions after the crash Sergeant Harold Julien who initially survived the crash but died five days later 5 indicated that there was a series of explosions that preceded the crash 6 15 The official inquiry found that the statements of witnesses who talked with Julien before he died in hospital five days after the crash 16 were inconsistent The report states that there were numerous delays that violated established search and rescue procedures There were three separate delays the first delayed the initial alarm of a possible plane in trouble the second delayed the distress alarm which indicates that communications with surrounding airports indicate that a missing plane has not landed elsewhere the third delayed the eventual search and rescue operation and the discovery of the plane wreckage just kilometres miles away The medical examiner s report was inconclusive one report said that Hammarskjold had died on impact another stated that Hammarskjold might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed 6 The report also said that the chances of Sgt Julien surviving the crash would have been infinitely better if the rescue operations had been hastened 6 On 16 March 2015 UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon appointed members to an independent panel of experts to examine new information related to the tragedy The three member panel was led by Mohamed Chande Othman the Chief Justice of Tanzania The other two members were Kerryn Macaulay Australia s representative to ICAO and Henrik Larsen a ballistics expert from the Danish National Police The report was handed over to the secretary general on 12 June 2015 17 The panel s 99 page report released 6 July 2015 assigned moderate value to nine new eyewitness accounts and transcripts of radio transmissions Those accounts suggested that Hammarskjold s plane was already on fire as it landed and that other jet aircraft and intelligence agents were nearby 18 Alternative theories EditDespite the multiple official inquiries that failed to find evidence of assassination or other forms of foul play several individuals have continued to advance a theory of the crash being deliberately caused by hostile interests 12 At the time of Hammarskjold s death the Central Intelligence Agency and other Western agencies were actively involved in the political situation in the Congo 12 which culminated in Belgian and US support for the secession of Katanga and the assassination of former prime minister Patrice Lumumba The Belgian government had a vested interest in maintaining their control over much of the country s copper industry during the Congolese transition from colonial rule to independence Concerns about the nationalisation of the copper industry could have provided a financial incentive to remove either Lumumba or Hammarskjold 12 The official inquiry has come under scrutiny and criticism from historians who point to a number of conclusions made which they claim were done to steer focus away from the assassination angle 12 19 The official report dismissed a number of pieces of evidence that would have supported the view that Hammarskjold was assassinated 6 Some of these dismissals have been criticized such as the conclusion that bullet wounds could have been caused by bullets exploding in a fire Expert tests have questioned this conclusion arguing that exploding bullets could not break the surface of the skin 12 6 Major C F Westell a ballistics authority said I can certainly describe as sheer nonsense the statement that cartridges of machine guns or pistols detonated in a fire can penetrate a human body 20 He based his statement on a large scale experiment that had been done to determine if military fire brigades would be in danger working near munitions depots Other experts conducted and filmed tests showing that bullets heated to the point of explosion did not achieve sufficient velocity to penetrate their box container 20 The day after the crash former U S President Harry Truman commented that Hammarskjold was on the point of getting something done when they killed him Notice that I said when they killed him 21 On 19 August 1998 Archbishop Desmond Tutu chairman of South Africa s Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC stated that recently uncovered letters had implicated MI5 the CIA and then South African intelligence services in the crash 22 One TRC letter said that a bomb in the aircraft s wheel bay was set to detonate when the wheels came down for a landing Tutu said that they were unable to investigate the truth of the letters or the allegations that South African or Western intelligence agencies played a role in the crash The British Foreign Office suggested that they may have been created as Soviet misinformation or disinformation 23 On 29 July 2005 Norwegian Army Major general Bjorn Egge gave an interview to the newspaper Aftenposten on the events surrounding Hammarskjold s death According to Egge who had been the first UN officer to see the body Hammarskjold had a hole in his forehead and this hole was subsequently airbrushed from photos taken of the body It appeared to Egge that Hammarskjold had been thrown from the plane and grass and leaves in his hands might indicate that he survived the crash and that he had tried to scramble away from the wreckage Egge did not officially claim that the wound was a gunshot wound 24 In his speech to the 64th session of the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2009 Colonel Gaddafi called upon the Libyan president of UNGA Ali Treki to institute a UN investigation into the deaths of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba who was overthrown in 1960 and murdered the following year and of Hammarskjold in 1961 25 According to a dozen witnesses interviewed by Swedish aid worker Goran Bjorkdahl in the 2000s Hammarskjold s plane was shot down by another aircraft Bjorkdahl also reviewed previously unavailable archive documents and internal UN communications He believes that there was an intentional shoot down for the benefit of mining companies like Union Miniere 26 27 28 A US intelligence officer who was stationed at an electronic surveillance station in Cyprus stated that he heard a cockpit recording from Ndola In the cockpit recording a pilot talks of closing in on the DC 6 in which Hammarskjold was traveling guns are heard firing and then the words I ve hit it 29 In 2011 Who Killed Hammarskjold by Susan Williams 30 a University of London scholar of decolonisation in Africa outlined several serious doubts about the accidental character of the plane crash in 1961 It led to the formation of independent unofficial commission of inquiry in 2012 to provide an opinion on whether there was new evidence that would justify the UN re opening its 1962 inquiry the commission was headed by the British jurist Stephen Sedley The Sedley commission s report was presented on 9 September 2013 at the Peace Palace in The Hague 31 It recommended that the UN re open its inquiry pursuant to General Assembly resolution 1759 XVII of 26 October 1962 32 Its findings formed the basis of the constitution of a panel of experts and in March 2015 the appointment of Eminent Person Mohamed Chande Othman at the UN to support the ongoing Hammarskjold Commission 33 In April 2014 the Guardian published evidence implicating Jan van Risseghem a military pilot who served with the RAF during World War II later with the Belgian Air Force and who became known as the pilot of Moise Tshombe in Katanga The article claims that an American NSA employee former naval pilot Commander Charles Southall working at the NSA listening station in Cyprus in 1961 shortly after midnight on the night of the crash heard an intercept of a pilot s commentary in the air over Ndola 5 300 km 3 300 mi 34 away Southall recalled the pilot saying I see a transport plane coming low All the lights are on I m going down to make a run on it Yes it is the Transair DC 6 It s the plane adding that his voice was cool and professional Then he heard the sound of gunfire and the pilot exclaiming I ve hit it There are flames It s going down It s crashing Based on aircraft registration and availability with the Katangese Air Force registration KAT 93 a Fouga CM 170 Magister would be the most likely aircraft used and the website Belgian Wings claims that van Risseghem piloted the Magisters for the KAF in 1961 35 36 A further article was published by The Guardian in January 2019 repeating the allegations against van Risseghem and citing further evidence uncovered by the makers of the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjold including refutations of his alibi that he was not flying at the time of the crash 37 38 39 In December 2018 the German freelance historian Torben Gulstorff published an article in the Lobster magazine arguing that a German Dornier DO 28A may have been used for the attack on Hammarskjold s DC 6 The plane was delivered to Katanga by end of August 1961 and would have been technically capable of accomplishing such an assault 40 Memorial Edit Hammarskjold s grave in Uppsala Grave in Mount Jerome Dublin of Sgt Frank Eivers an Irish Army soldier who was also on the plane The Dag Hammarskjold Crash Site Memorial is under consideration for inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site A press release issued by the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo stated that in order to pay a tribute to this great man now vanished from the scene and to his colleagues all of whom have fallen victim to the shameless intrigues of the great financial Powers of the West the Government has decided to proclaim Tuesday 19 September 1961 a day of national mourning 11 In media EditThe accident and subsequent investigation were featured in the fifteenth season and fifth episode of the documentary series Mayday also known as Air Crash Investigation titled Deadly Mission first broadcast in February 2016 citation needed In the 2016 film The Siege of Jadotville Hammarskjold s plane is intercepted by an F 4 Phantom II citation needed aircraft and it is implied that Katangese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe ordered it done however the film ultimately leaves it ambiguous as Hammarskjold s plane is never shown actually being shot down only implied The film is incorrect however in depicting the plane crash as taking place during the six day attack by Katangese forces against Irish Army peacekeepers led by Commandant Pat Quinlan In reality Hammarskjold died the day after the besieged Irish contingent had surrendered citation needed The 2019 film Cold Case Hammarskjold details and dramatizes the investigation into Hammarskjold s alleged assassination by Danish film director Mads Brugger and Swedish private investigator Goran Bjorkdahl The film concludes that Hammarskjold s plane was shot down by a Belgian mercenary probably acting as part of a plot with involvement from the CIA MI6 and a mysterious South African white supremacist paramilitary organization SAIMR citation needed 41 Notes Edit All 16 occupants died as a result of the accident Sergeant Harold Julien was found alive but died about 5 days afterward from injuries sustained in the crash 5 Reports differed on whether Dag Hammarskjold or other occupants died immediately on impact or might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed 6 References Edit Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary General on the report of the Eminent Person relating to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjold and of the members of the party accompanying him United Nations United Nations 25 October 2017 Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Retrieved 18 February 2018 What Really Happened to Dag Hammarskjold s Plane Air Crash Investigation Deadly Mission TV Episode 2016 IMDb IMDb Experts solve 50 year old mystery behind UN chief s plane crash Toronto Star 14 September 2011 a b Lauria Joe 19 May 2014 U N Considers Reopening Probe into 1961 Crash that Killed Dag Hammarskjold Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on 12 May 2016 Retrieved 13 March 2017 a b c d e f g h i j k United Nations General Assembly Session 17 Report of the Commission of investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Mr Dag Hammarskjold and members of the party accompanying him A 5069 24 April 1962 Retrieved 21 November 2008 direct link A 5069 Archived from the original on 14 May 2011 Retrieved 24 March 2010 Graham Harrison Emma Rocksen Andreas Brugger Mads 12 January 2019 RAF veteran admitted 1961 killing of UN secretary general The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Archived from the original on 8 January 2021 Retrieved 12 January 2019 via www theguardian com Halberstam David 19 September 1961 Hammarskjold Dies In African Air Crash Kennedy Going To U N In Succession Crisis The New York Times Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Hamilton Thomas J 23 September 1961 Interim U N Head is Urged by Rusk His Timing Scored The New York Times p 1 Airliners net a b c Special Report on the Fatal Flight of the Secretary General s Aircraft PDF United Nations 19 September 1961 Archived PDF from the original on 22 October 2021 Retrieved 16 January 2009 a b c d e f Hollington Kris August 2008 Wolves Jackals and Foxes Thomas Dunne Books ISBN 978 0 312 37899 8 Macarthur Job Air Disaster Volume 4 Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd 2001 ISBN 1 875671 48 X p 142 Hammarskjold dies in plane crash History com 9 February 2010 Archived from the original on 15 April 2019 1961 UN Secretary General killed in air crash BBC 18 November 1961 Archived from the original on 10 January 2021 Retrieved 16 January 2009 page 36 The Spectator 29 October 2011 United Nations 12 June 2015 Ban receives report probing new information on Dag Hammarskjold s death UN News Centre Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Retrieved 23 April 2017 Panel Possible Aerial Attack on Hammarskjold Plane in 1961 The New York Times Associated Press 6 July 2015 Retrieved 6 July 2015 Matthew Hughes 9 August 2001 The Man Who Killed Hammarskjold London Review of Books 23 15 33 34 Archived from the original on 19 February 2018 Retrieved 19 September 2011 a b Arthur Gavshon 1962 The Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjold New York Walker and Company p 58 Jamie Doward Spy messages could finally solve mystery of UN chief s death crash The Guardian 13 December 2014 Notes for Media Briefing By Archbishop by Desmond Tutu Chairperson of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission 19 August 1998 Speeches Archived from the original on 16 July 2012 Retrieved 8 February 2016 UN assassination plot denied news bbc co uk 19 August 1998 Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Retrieved 13 October 2017 Cato Guhnfeldt 1 January 1970 Sa hull i pannen The holes in the forehead in Norwegian Aftenposten no Archived from the original on 16 July 2012 Retrieved 10 September 2013 Gaddafi s address to UN General Assembly 23 September 2009 Archived from the original on 29 November 2019 Dag Hammarskjold evidence suggests UN chief s plane was shot down The Guardian 17 August 2011 Archived from the original on 11 February 2021 Retrieved 17 August 2011 Bjorkdahl Goran 17 August 2011 I have no doubt Dag Hammarskjold s plane was brought down The Guardian Archived from the original on 26 March 2021 Julian Borger 16 September 2011 Call for new inquiry following emergence of new evidence Guardian Archived from the original on 9 March 2021 Retrieved 10 September 2013 Dag Hammarskjold Was His Death a Crash or a Conspiracy bbc co uk 18 September 2011 Archived from the original on 9 March 2021 Susan Williams Who Killed Hammarskjold The UN the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa London Hurst First edition 2011 2nd edition with an additional chapter co authored with Henning Melber and David Wardrop December 2016 Richard J Goldstone Hammarskjold Commission Presents Report on Secretary General s Death to the United Nations International Judicial Monitor Summer 2013 Issue Archived from the original on 15 November 2020 Retrieved 24 February 2019 Dag Hammarskjold death UN should reopen inquiry BBC News 9 September 2013 Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 Background The Hammarskjold Commission Archived from the original on 7 November 2020 Distance from Ndola Zambia to Nicosia Cyprus Borger Julian 17 August 2011 Dag Hammarskjold evidence suggests UN chief s plane was shot down The Guardian Archived from the original on 11 February 2021 Retrieved 2 August 2014 Borger Julian 4 April 2014 Dag Hammarskjold s plane may have been shot down ambassador warned The Guardian Archived from the original on 12 November 2020 Retrieved 2 August 2014 Graham Harrison Emma Rocksen Andreas Brugger Mads 12 January 2019 RAF veteran admitted 1961 killing of UN secretary general The Guardian Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Retrieved 13 January 2019 Mikkonen Minttu 13 January 2019 Tuore dokumentti vaittaa ratkaisseensa yhden kylman sodan ajan suurimmista arvoituksista Palkkasoturi tunnusti ampuneensa alas YK n paasihteerin Dag Hammarskjoldin A new documentary claims one of the biggest puzzles of the Cold War era has been solved A mercenary confessed to having shot down UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish Retrieved 31 January 2020 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint url status link Cold Case Hammarskjold sundance org Sundance Institute Archived from the original on 9 April 2021 Retrieved 31 January 2020 Gulstorff Torben Winter 2018 German links to the Hammarskjold case Making the case for another possible murder weapon PDF Lobster 76 Archived PDF from the original on 4 January 2021 Brugger Mads director 26 January 2019 Cold Case Hammarskjold Motion Picture External links EditPortals Sweden Zambia Aviation 1960s Dag Hammarskjold archives on UN Archives website 18 September 1961 UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold is killed and BBC Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC 6 crash amp oldid 1151293223, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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