page_title: 1954 Bjørnøya Consolidated PBY Catalina crash
hierarchical_section_title: 1954 Bjørnøya Consolidated PBY Catalina crash
caption_attribution_description: English: Bear Island accident was an aircraft accident that hit the Air Force on 28 March 1954. One of the Air Force Catalina flying boats from the 333 Squadron with the characteristics of KK-N (formerly LN-OAP from Vingtor Airways) had the mission to drop mail bags to the meteorological stations at Bear Island, Hopen and mining communities in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen. Photo: Per Harald Olsen
context_page_description: The 1954 Bjørnøya Consolidated PBY Catalina crash was a controlled flight into terrain of a Consolidated PBY Catalina on the island of Bjørnøya in Svalbard, Norway, on 28 March 1954 at ca. 15:00. The Royal Norwegian Air Force aircraft of No. 333 Squadron RNoAF was conducting a postal drop flight from Tromsø to five settlements on Svalbard, including Bjørnøya Radio, making a low pass over Bjørnøya at a height of 40 meters before crashing into the ground. Only one of the nine on board survived.
  The crew at the station set out to find the aircraft in 3 ft of snow, and did not manage to bring the survivor back to the station until the following day. Four military ships were dispatched to search for the aircraft. Once it was found, Andenes and Sørøy returned to Tromsø and then took the investigation commission to Bjørnøya. They concluded that the accident was caused by the aircraft losing altitude through a sideslip, possibly due to the pilot losing spatial awareness in the poor visibility.
context_section_description: The 1954 Bjørnøya Consolidated PBY Catalina crash (Norwegian: Bjørnøya-ulykken) was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) of a Consolidated PBY Catalina on the island of Bjørnøya in Svalbard, Norway, on 28 March 1954 at ca. 15:00. The Royal Norwegian Air Force aircraft of No. 333 Squadron RNoAF (333 Sqn) was conducting a postal drop flight from Tromsø to five settlements on Svalbard, including Bjørnøya Radio, making a low pass over Bjørnøya at a height of 40 meters (130 ft) before crashing into the ground. Only one of the nine on board survived.
  The crew at the station set out to find the aircraft in 3 ft (1 m) of snow, and did not manage to bring the survivor back to the station until the following day. Four military ships were dispatched to search for the aircraft. Once it was found, Andenes and Sørøy returned to Tromsø and then took the investigation commission to Bjørnøya. They concluded that the accident was caused by the aircraft losing altitude through a sideslip, possibly due to the pilot losing spatial awareness in the poor visibility.
caption: The wreckage site
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