OurStory

ORAFs regrets that it inadvertently posted a photo showing two crew members and a Canberra in the background.
This has been deleted and the correct information has been loaded. It shows a photo of John Fidlin.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Eddy Norris

Rob Thurman writes:-

This is an extract from Half A Century in Uniform. It might be of interest to members. As a matter of interest I also discovered that
the USSR conducted inquiries and came to the same conclusion as the Rhodesian's as did the Canadians. However, I was unable to get detailed
confirmation at the time so didn't mention it in the book. I have been unable to find any references on the internet. The book I referred to
simply mentioned it in passing with the comment that the UN wouldn't use it as it made "Rhodesia look innocent." In my notes I recorded that
"Ossie actually watched the plane overfly the runway. He is adamant that it was a simple mis-judgement."

"Ossie was CO of 4 Squadron from June 1961 until the end of 1963 and the end of the Federation.
These two years were probably the most turbulent the young Air Force had to face until then. Politics were the order of the day and a new Constitution came into being. The Federation and dream of Partnership held by Godfrey
Huggins and Roy Welensky had been sabotaged by other politicians, mainly those from Britain.

Despite the great number of visits by all manner of people from Britain and the furore generated in the local press, Ossie maintained aloof and disdainful. His task was to fly and to run a Squadron and he did this to the best of his
ability.

On the 18th September 1961 Dag Hammarsjkold, Secretary General of the United Nations, died in an aeroplane crash near the Copperbelt town of Ndola, amongst a great deal of speculation about foul play. History books record his
death as an accident.

Despite all the accusations thrown about and the calls for war against the Federation it was obvious to those in the area that a simple misjudgment had occurred. Certainly, the history books have recorded the incident as an
accident. To emphasise this it is of interest to look at the record of events as recorded by the Federal Commission of Enquiry, which investigated the tragedy.

Moise Tshombe was in a tenuous power in the Province of Katanga. After U.N. Operation Morthor was concluded with the Gurkhas finally accepting the surrender of the last Katangese soldier left alive on the Post Office building in
Elisabethville (he was literally forced to fall to his death at bayonet point - but that is another story) a cordon was thrown around Tshombe's house. M. Tshombe slipped through the net and he remained at liberty.

It became obvious to the U.N. that he was not the puppet of a White power they believed him to be and that the only solution to the military impasse they had arrived at was to seek a negotiated cease fire.

Dag Hammarskjold decided that a meeting between himself and M. Tshombe in Rhodesia would be possible. During the night of the 16th September 1961 Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, who headed the U.N. operation in the Congo, received a message, through the offices of the British Consul in Elisabethville stating that M. Tshombe wanted to meet him at Bancroft in Northern Rhodesia on the morning of September 17th.

Mr Hammarskjold decided that he, rather than O'Brien, would meet the African leader. He also dictated that orders be given beforehand for an immediate and effective cease-fire. He proposed that this should be imposed by both sides.

As the airfield at Bancroft was too small to take a large aircraft, he suggested as an alternative Ndola, with the meeting to take place at a later hour.

On the morning of 17th September the U.N authorities received confirmation that M. Tshombe agreed to all these suggestions. He requested that all U.N troops be confined to their camps, with no troop movements by them.

Mr Hammarskjold sent back a message that did not in fact reach the African Premier saying that such conditions were unacceptable. M. Tshombe had already chartered an aircraft and was on his way to Ndola. In the circumstances Mr Hammarskjold decided to go to Ndola himself.

The Federal Government, in their desire to see an end to the fighting agreed to the meeting on Federal soil. A Britisher, Lord Alport, used a R.R.A.F Canadair for his stay in the country for he, too, had decided to join the others at
Ndola.

Initially, Lord Lansdowne, also British, was to travel with the Secretary General to smooth the way in the Federation. Mr Hammarskjold decided that the lord should fly in a different plane from his own.

Originally, Mr Hammarskjold was to leave Leopoldville at 10h00 on Sunday in a Douglas DC4, registration letters OO-RIC, a Belgian owned plane. It was decided that he instead use a bigger Douglas DC6B with the registration letters
SE-BDY, a Swedish plane, owned by Transair Sweden A.B. Lord Lansdowne flew in the DC4.

The British Ambassador signalled Lord Alport at 3.49 local time that: "Lord Lansdowne ... will arrive Ndola about 19h00 today by UN aircraft and will continue to Salisbury, returning to Leopoldville Tomorrow afternoon. Secretary General is due to Ndola this evening by separate flight after Lord Lansdowne. Flight details will be notified direct from the
aircraft." Flight details were never notified from anywhere.

At that time Salisbury was the Flight Information Region into which SE-BDY was intending to fly. Under international aviation regulations all civil aircraft were obliged to transmit a flight plan to the Flight Information Centre and keep
in touch with it during the flight. SE-BDY did not obey these regulations.

The excuse given out at this time was that the U.N. expected an attack from a Katangese Fouga Magister jet. However, considering that the story given out was that the Secretary-General was aboard OO-RIC and that that plane did not have any problems makes this contention a bit spurious.

SE-BDY carried a crew of 3 pilots, a radio operator, a flight engineer ten passengers and Mr Hammarskjold.

At around midnight SE-BDY called in to Salisbury; the pilot advised that he would be landing at Ndola at 12h35.

Later on the pilot advised that he was over Lake Tanganyika at a height of 17 000 feet and would be arriving a few minutes earlier than expected at 12h20. At ten past twelve the SE-BDY reported "lights in sight, overhead
Ndola, descending..."

No further communication was received. The runway lights and the high intensity approach lights were on at all times.
At the same moment many witnesses reported a large plane flying over the town. What happened between 10 past twelve and 13 minutes past twelve on the flight deck of the DC6B we will never know.

The following afternoon the wreck was found nine and a half miles from the runway. All the personnel on board died.
The shock at the tragedy was tremendous and had far reaching repercussions. Wild accusations were flung at the Federation and at its Premier, Roy Welensky. In Leopoldville it was declared that war should immediately be declared against Rhodesia. The Ghanaians stated that Britain and the Federation had perpetrated the “international crime of the century." In India and Egypt the same cry was taken up. At home the Nationalist leaders were equally vociferous.

The Federation conducted its own Court of Enquiry under the control of the
Director of Aviation, Colonel Maurice Barber. In addition a three man Commission of enquiry with the Federal Chief Justice, a British High Court Judge and a representative of the Civil Aviation Organisation in Montreal was appointed. Finally, the United Nations Commission also investigated the accident.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, the U.N report leaves a question mark over the accident which the other two Commissions state to be pilot error.

Canadian Content has this to say about Dag Hammarskjold:

"In September 1961 he found out about the fighting between non-combatant UN forces and Katanga troops of Moise Tshombe. He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on the night of September 17-18 when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He and fifteen others perished. There is still speculation as to the cause of the crash.

On August 19, 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), revealed that recently-uncovered letters had implicated South African agents in the 1961 crash of Dag Hammarskjöld's plane. One TRC letter said that a bomb in the aircraft's wheel-bay was set to detonate when the wheels came down for landing.[2]

On July 29, 2005, exactly 100 years after Hammarskjöld's birth, the Norwegian Major General Bjørn Egge gave an interview to the newspaper Aftenposten on the events surrounding his death. According to Egge, who was 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 had tried to scramble away from the wreckage. Egge's statement does not, however, align with Archbishop Tutu's information.

A third, less sinister explanation, is that Hammarskjold's aircraft descended too low on its approach to Ndola's airport because the crew of the DC-6 incorrectly used altitude data for Ndolo, which is in the Congo and at lower altitude, rather than Ndola in Northern Rhodesia."

Jim Townsend Writes:-

The following are parts of my memoirs, (This is a shortened version of the incident).
We were ordered to greet Dag Hammarskjoeld upon his arrival at Ndola airport, during the evening of his visit, while we were waiting for him on the tarmac we saw his DC-6 aircraft fly overhead and disappear into the darkness approx 20 - 30 minutes later we saw a glow in the darkness many miles away, but we did not associate this to the DC-6 at that time, upon enquiring at the control tower as to where the aircraft was, we were told that he was on the approach but must have been diverted due to security reasons.
Next day late in the afternoon it was reported that the DC-6 had disappeared with no contact.
We dispatched two of our Provosts to carry out an Air to Ground search at daybreak in the general vicinity of our observed glow in the sky previously also to the vicinity of the projected flight path that he should have been flying.
I was acting as an observer with Jerry Craxford in one Provost and although we searched for many hours we did not see any signs of the DC-6, I think it was Ian Harvey in the other Provost who saw a reflection in the bush two days later and vectored in ground search parties who located the crash site of the DC-6.
By that time the airplane had been robbed of many parts when the search parties arrived at the scene, but the biggest headache were the many bullet holes in the fuselage, (which we later found out that the bullet holes were from the firearm ammunition exploding in the heat, which were part of the equipment kept by the bodyguards on the airplane).
Many months later we were to face grueling cross examinations by Swiss lawyers indirectly accusing us of shooting down the DC-6 with our Provosts, I was on the witness stand for an hour the only thing that the lawyers did not ask me was to the colour of my grandmothers eyes, although others on cross examination had a much worse time than I.
It was determined at the end of the inquiry that the cause of the accident was due to pilot error in as much the Jepperssens pages were found to have been opened on the wrong airport, (Ndolo) not Ndola ie, wrong altitude and heading which caused them to hit the ground.

Good piece - well done. I guess if something goes wrong in the world - you find a Rhodesian to blame for it.

There was a Whole Time Life Agent with the Prudential - the Man from the Pru - who was based in Ndola at the time of the Hammarskold crash. I met him in 1968 when I was based with the Pru in Ndola to train locals. Sid Clark had accepted a position of Fire And Accident Inspector as well as WTLA at that time. We went out to the crash site memorial and during the tour he told me that when the bodies were laid out in Ndola preparatory to their transportation elsewhere he had helped the doctor. He was adamant that theee had been no bullet holes in any of the bodies he saw. He was also adamant that he had seen Hammarskold at the time. He was, apparently, never called to give testimony as he "wasn't needed."

Paul Mroz Writes:-

Again you have hit the jackpot.
I was always very interested in Hammarskjöld's "accident" and Moise Tshombie.
Reading the story and also the comments on the matter has been fantastic !
As these yanks say "you've hit a home run " again old mate !

Mike Saunders Writes:-

At the time the DC6 over flew the Airport I was having a drink at the Aero Club with one of the Air Traffic controllers (Martin ?), the aircraft came as if from long finals at about 1000’ then turned downwind and disappeared. The airfield was if I recall in fact closed but we went and put the runway lights on and waited to see if the aircraft returned.

The following morning some phone calls started to come in describing a possible crash and personnel were sent out to interview callers and if possible get bearings on the reported noise/flash. A zone started to develop in the rough area of base leg / finals. A local police officer arrived with what appeared to be a typewriter they had confiscated from a hawker in one of the townships, it turned out to be a UN crypto machine complete with key word pasted on it ! several aircraft were tasked to search all possible areas and either Jerry Craxford or Ian Harvey finally reported the smoking wreckage of a large aircraft in a charcoal burning area under where base leg would be .

There was in fact a survivor – one Sergeant Julian of the US Secret Service. Curiously there were only two people not completely burnt in the crash – Hammarskjold and Julian – it appeared they had been seated together and been thrown out when the fuselage split close to them. Hammarskjold was dead but not burned, with an injury to his neck and jaw and Julian died several days later in hospital from his burns. Hammarskjold was immediately recognizable and in addition wore an ID bracelet I do not recall a head injury.

The wheels and flaps were in position for landing and the path that the left wing tip cut through the trees was quite clearly visible. There has never been any doubt in my mind that this was a simple case of crew misjudgment possibly aggravated by the same phenomenon that caused the Air Rhod Viscount to descend into the desert short of the runway at Benghazi. Light refraction caused by layers of air at differing temperatures can distort appearances and lead to a premature visual descent. Sad story all round and resulted in endless BS. The wreckage of the DC 6 is reputed to be buried under the present apron area at Ndola airport.

Rex Taylor writes:-

I was at Ndola on 4 Sqdn detachment on Provosts. On completing my recce for the missing aircraft, I heard that Jerry Craxford had located the old wreckage of what seemed like a Dakota.

Mike Saunders and I went to the scene by landrover and immediately saw that it was the still smouldering wreck of a smallish aircraft! The police had also just arrived and I remember a policemen taking us to a body that he identified as Dag Hammerskjold. It was one of the few bodies complete and not a charred lump. It was on the edge of the wreckage and I do not believe that there was any "grass gripped in his hand"!

Mike and I recognised the Secretary General as the corpse was not burnt. As Mike and I were leaving, Mike said "that at any rate this was a Dak" Only two engines were recogniseable and we stopped and identified the wreckage of two other engines! It was apparent to us that all four engines were under power at the time of the crash. The wreckage must have been very difficult to see from the air as it was in a seemingly concentrated blob of blackened aluminum under the trees. It appeared that at the moment of impact with the ground, the aircraft was nose down, but the first impact must have been with the trees. Mike and I saw no documents and I am sceptical of the claim that a "Jefferson" reference folder was found in the wreckage, much less opened to show "Ndola" or "Nodola".

The Board of Inquiry were probably correct though, in their assumption that the crew had read the altitude data for the wrong airfield.

Len Pink Writes:-

Just thought I need to set the record straight on the location of the Hammarskjold crash site.Civil Aviation were in charge of the search and rescue. They had aircraft flying far and wide to no avail.About mid morning on 18th September I approached the detachment commander John Mussell and asked whether I could fly with a Provost pilot to carry out a creeping line search from the end of the active runway. Jerry Craxford and self were airborne at 1200 in Provost 150, and eventually located the crash site where the aircraft had cut a path through the trees in a direct line from the runway. Flight time was 2hours 40 mins. Subsequent investigation found that the pilot had in all probability been using the approach chart for Ndolo in West Africa which is at sea level. The Air force organised a Canadair flown by George Alexander to simulate the approach using the Ndolo information, This would have resulted in the aircraft flying into the ground at the crash site.It clearly pointed to pilot error but the Swedish Government ensured that it was never made public.

I was on a posting to Ndola from New Sarum, and on duty the night the Aircraft flew over the Airfield.I was also one of the coffin bearers and Guard of Honour at Hammarskjöld's lying in state in Ndola.
Eric Hammond