Plane crash blamed on metal fatigue

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 11

Plane crash blamed on metal fatigue

NZPA-AFP Hirsthals, Denmark Metal fatigue caused a Norwegian charter plane to crash on Saturday, killing 55 people, the director of rescue operations said yesterday as the search continued for missing bodies.

Commissioner HansJoergen Hansen de Hjoerring said debris from the aircraft and the condition of bodies retrieved so far ruled out sabotage. The plane crashed into the sea off Denmark. Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of 22 men and nine women, while 24 bodies are still missing.

The Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, cancelled campaigning for today’s general elections in Norway after the twin-engine Metropolitan plane, owned by a Norwegian

charter firm, Partnair, crashed and sank.

A Partnair spokesman said the plane, built by a United States company, Convair, and fitted with 1953-vintage propellers, had been modernised several times and had undergone a complete overhaul in Canada just a week before it crashed. A Norwegian Air Force spokesman dismissed rumours in Norway and Denmark that the plane might have been hit by a missile during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization military exercise. The plane’s passengers

were all Norwegians working for the Wilhelmsen Lines shipping firm. They were travelling to Hamburg for the launch of a new freighter.

Witnesses said the plane “fell like a stone” into the sea. According to Danish air traffic controllers, it was flying at about 7000 m when it vanished from radar screens. Mrs Brundtland described the disaster as “one of the worst in our history.” She announced that all political parties had agreed to call off the election campaign as a gesture of respect.