“U.N. Plane Crash Was Accident”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29624, 21 September 1961, Page 15

“U.N. Plane Crash Was Accident”

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) LONDON, September 20. Reports that Mr Hammarskjold’s plane might have been shot down by a jet fighter or blown up by a bomb on board were firmly discounted by officials on the spot yesterday, the “Daily Mail” reported.

More and more it appeared that the crash was a “normal” one—the type known to pilots as an undershooting accident. The newspaper’s correspondent said the pilot was only five miles from the runway, properly lined up for a landing and with his wheels lowered.

Clearly, he had expected to be landing in just over a minute. But he had been too late by at least lOOOft and the plane had sliced into trees and crashed.

The correspondent said there might have been a sudden loss of power on one engine, or a faulty altimeter, or a misreading of it by the pilot This was quite a common occurrence. It was learned yesterday that a British pathologist would probably be down out f om London to help establish the cause of death of Mr Hammarskjold and his companions. The board of inquiry, which went to the spot, wants to find out whether the deaths were caused when the plane struck the ground or whether the occupants died in the The body of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Dag Hammarskjold. will lie in state in a small church at Ndola today while the Katanga cease-fire talks he was to have opened continue into their second day. Today’s talks, between President Moise Tshombe of Katanga and United Nations officials continued after meetings yesterday lasting five hours and a half. No communique was issued.

The United Nations party is headed by Mr Mahmoud Khiari, the Tunisian special United Natibns representative in the Congo. President Tshombe is being accompanied at the talks by his Foreign Minis-

ter (Mr Evariste Kimba) and his Finance Minister (Mr Jean-Baptiste Kibwe).

Informed sources said the negotiations wiU probably fall into two phases: talk for a “stand-still” in the fighting, and further negotiations involving the whole question of Katanga’s future status in the Congo. In Leopoldville, authoritative sources said the United Nations was willing to withdraw Dr. Conor O’Brien, the Secretary-General’s representative in Katanga, to help ease the situation. At the Ndola Free Church where Mr Hammarskjold’s body lies, wreaths will be laid today by the British High Commissioner to Rhodesia (Lord Alport), the Governor of Northern Rhodesia (Sir Evelyn Home) and by representatives of the Rhodesian Federal Government. Katanga. Sweden and the ’United Nations will also lay wreaths. In Stockholm, a Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday there would be a State funeral for Mr Hammarskjold. but it had not yet been decided where. The Associated Press reported from New York that a cargo plane chartered by the United Nations left New York today for Salisbury. Northern Rhodesia, to pick up the body of Mr Hammarskjold, and fly it to Stockholm. The plane, a Pan Ameri-

can DC-7, will also return to the United States the bodies of the three Americans killed in the Crash that took Mr Hammarskjold’s life. The Congolese Prime Minister (Mr Cyrille Adoula) said in Leopoldville that Congolese troops were on the alert and ready to “answer force by force in Katanga.” In a speech broadcast by the national Congolese radio, Mr Adoula appealed to all Congolese citizens to be ready to answer a call from the Government to serve in Katanga. “No sacrifice will be spared,” he said. United Press International quoted Mr Adoula as saying in his radio broadcast that “as from now every citizen has to be prepared to answer the Government’s appeal to serve in Katanga." U.P.I. said travellers reaching Ndola from Elisabethville. capital of Katanga, reported that Katangese attacks on United Nations troops were growing in intensity. They said morale among the Katangese soldiers, led by white mercenaries, was soaring because they appeared to have the United Nations forces -on the defensive. But informed sources said that Katangese gendarmes suffered heavy losses—-per-haps as many as 110 killedtrying to break an Indian roadblock near Elisabethville yesterday in one of the bitterest battles of the Congo outbreak. There was no information on Indian losses but the reports said they still held the position after the attack. United Press International reported. The radio said some today that United Nations troops in Elisabethville abandoned their headquarters under attack and regrouped outside the city, United Press International reported. The radio said some Indian Gurkha soldiers were left at the headquarters. Katangan police and Swedish United Nations soldiers clashed near the Baluba refugees’ camp at Elisabethville yesterday, the radio said.

The broadcast claimed a large number of refugees left the camp in answer to President Tshombe’s appeal to place themselves under his protection, and were shot by Swedish soldidrs. The radio said Katanga policemen thought they were attacked and returned the fire, United Press International said.