Death of Dag Hammarskjold
 

I am doing some research on Dag Hammarskjold and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction regarding details of the DC 6 crash near Ndola in which he was killed. Are there any books or articles on the subject? Also does anyone know the history of the DC 6 itself?

Google gives quite a few pages, but it appears the accident remains largely a mystery and photographs of the crashsite very rare. If you have not already seen it, visit this site:
http://www.videoreporter.nl/zambiauk.htm

DC-6.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/...?id=19610918-0

Tiger mate and Newforest - both links very helpful. Many thanks.
Interesting that this was a crash with a public figure that abounds with conspiracy theories.
Kemac

Aussie author Macarthur Job covered the crash very well in his book 'Air Disaster - Vol 4'

Wanderin Dave - Thanks - I have Volume 1 and thought it was an excellent read. I will order Vol. 4. If it is anything like the first one then it's exactly what I am after.

KeMac - if you have any trouble obtaining a copy PM with email address and will scan and send for you.

The particular aircraft (a DC-6B, I believe) was originally operated by Aramco, where it was used for oil field crew changes...originally multi stops Dhahran - Houston and return, then, when jet scheduled service to Rome from the USA was available, one stop to Rome, and return to Dhahran.
Bought new from Douglas and went directly to Aramco, as I recall.
The name painted on the nose was Camel One.

I have read two versions of the conspiracy theory regarding the crash.

They both involve the aircraft being intercepted by Fuga Magisters (sp?) being flown by mercenary pilots. The first version was that the aircraft was shot down whilst on approach. The second version was that the Magister was unable to locate the DC-6 and the crash was a miscalculation on the part of the pilots.

In the first version it was said that the one surviver of the crash was subsequently shot by persons on the ground and that there was a considerable quantity of ammunition on the aircraft.

Personally I think the pilots erred. Conspiracy theory is usually a load of bunk and is dependent on an enormously complicated chain of events to work. Something not often found in real life.

STRANGE ENCOUNTERS by David Beaty.

Hammarskjold's crash
 

I'd love to have a scanned copy of that article. Have actually red the very inconclusive UN accident report.

SE BDY
 

Accident report at www.aviation-safety.net if you've not already seen it.

TTFN

Job's Air Disaster Vol 4 is on offer on abebooks.com but not cheap!

My brother was in Northern Rhodesian Police at N'Dola Traffic (i.e. mobile unit) at the time. Always very cagey on the subject - but I think he knows quite a lot. He's now a recluse living in a mobile caravan in Cornwall, not on email. If you pm me I'll give you his postal address and you can try your luck.

KeMac - what else would you like to know about the accident? The DC-6B, SE-BDY, belonged to Transair Sweden. On the flight deck were Captain Hallonquist, FO Litton, Captain Ahreus, Engineer Wilhelmsson and Radio Operator Rosen.

Transair's Director of Flight Operations, Captain Pearson, was also on the flight as was the company's Chief Engineer and Chief Flight Engineer. Amongst others, there were also two ICAO representatives and a Captain McAfee of the International Federation of Airline Pilots.

Ndola base OC was Rhodesian Air force Squadron Leader Mussell. The wreckage was spotted by Flying Officer Craxford from a searching Provost.

A DC-4, OO-RIC, was sent in ahead to give the impression it was actually carrying the Secretary General. This was for security reasons although there was no evidence of any sabotage causing the accident.

Dag Hammarskjold
 

Hello, I read your message from a few months ago saying that your brother was with the Ndola traffic police in 1961. I have done quite a lot of research on the crash, including interviews of old (still alive) eye witnesses who have never been heard before. I have drafted an article to be published in Aug or Sept this year, and a book next year. It would be interesting to get in touch with your brother to hear if he has any interesting information. Besides, I'm in contact with another ex-police officer in Ndola at the time, Adrian Begg who now lives in Australia.

Göran Björkdahl, [email protected]

PS I work for the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and I'm currently based at our embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

I posted an interesting Yahoo article about the crash about 3 weeks ago.

Just in case it helps anyone, here's a link to another PPRuNe thread that appeared briefly last month:

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...sh-1961-a.html

It includes a number of links that may be useful.

Minor points about Aramco DC6s
 

A couple of minor points. The DC6s were used to ferry workers, families and cargo between New York and Dhahran. During the DC6 era, Aramco workers signed a 2 year contract. Oil field workers were not shuttled back and forth except at the beginning and end of their contract - not at crew change.

Aramco operated the DC6s from New York (not Houston) to Dhahran. In a later era, Aramco moved its headquarters to Houston and flew charter flights from Houston to Dhahran. During that era, some oil field crews did 28 days on and 28 days off. These crew were shuttled back and forth to between Houston and Dhahran.

Aramco Aviation has had a long and rich history.

UN peace keepers.
I have a friend who was out there. He lent me a book "Jadotville" about a group of Irish peace keepers set up by the powers that be. They fought until they run out of ammunition causing heavy casualties on the mercenary forces in the pay of the old colonial powers. Was a set up to give them an excuse to invade the country and return it to the Belgians amongst others.
A SA mercenary was believed (by whom?) to have executed Dag after he survived the crash.