page_title: History of Widerøe
section_title: Dash 7
hierarchical_section_title: History of Widerøe / Dash 7
caption_attribution_description: English: The former airport on Værøy, Norway.
context_page_description: Widerøe, a regional airline based in Norway, was established by Viggo Widerøe, Einar Isdahl and Arild Widerøe on 19 February 1934. The airline started off with a combination of scheduled, aerial photography and general aviation services using seaplanes. It lost its route concessions to Norwegian Air Lines in 1935 and was subsequently bought by that company, for whom it operated several minor routes. World War II hindered Widerøe from operating any flights between 1939 and 1945. After the war Widerøe started flying various seaplane routes that were too small for DNL and its successor, Scandinavian Airlines System. These routes were commonly flown using Noorduyn Norseman and de Havilland Canada Otter aircraft. During the 1960s Widerøe attempted operating Douglas DC-3s for charter flights, but soon closed those operations.
  A national network of regional airports started being constructed in the late 1960s and Widerøe was awarded the right to operate the subsidized routes. From 1968 the airline introduced the Twin Otter, which it eventually operated a dozen of. From 1981 de Havilland Canada Dash 7s were introduced on the main routes.
context_section_description: The routes to Røst and Værøy were changed to a helicopter service in 1972, initially subcontracted to Helilift, which used two Sikorsky S-58Ts. In 1973 Widerøe received NOK 1.9 million in state subsidies for the helicopter route and NOK 13.6 million for the regional routes. That year the company signed an option for two de Havilland Canad DHC-7 Dash 7s. Widerøe tested a route from Sogndal to Oslo over the mountains from 1 May to 30 September 1974. On 1 August, five airports were opened in northern Troms and Finnmark: Sørkjosen Airport, Hammerfest Airport, Mehamn Airport, Båtsfjord Airport and Vadsø Airport; these connected to Tromsø, Alta Airport, Lakselv Airport, Banak and Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen. The Finnmark route required the delivery of two additional Twin Otters and a technical base was built at Hammerfest. Three more airports opened in the following years: Sandane Airport, Anda on 1 July 1975, Narvik Airport, Framnes on 1 October 1975 and Honningsvåg Airport, Valan on 1 July 1977. By 1978 the company had twelve Twin Otters.
  The remaining Sikorsky helicopter was bought from Helilift in 1976 and the operations transferred to Offshore Helicopters. It crashed in 1977 and a new Sikorsky S-58T was bought in 1978. Offshore Helicopters was bought by Helikopter Service in 1980, which took over operations and introduced Bell 212 helicopters from 1 January 1982. Starting on 10 April 1980, Widerøe started an international service on behalf of SAS on the route from Trondheim to Åre Östersund Airport and Sundsvall Airport in Sweden. Services terminated on 28 April 1982. The Sogndal–Oslo route became permanent in 1979, but only during the summer. A Twin Otter simulator was bought in 1981.
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  On 11 March 1982 Flight 933 crashed into the Barents Sea between Berlevåg and Mehamn, killing all fifteen people on board the Twin Otter. The accident was caused by structural failure in the rudder and vertical stabilizer following severe clear-air turbulence. A conspiracy theory concerning a collision with a British Harrier fighter led to four investigations, none of which found any evidence of a collision.
  The first two Dash 7s entered service in March and May 1981, with a third delivered in April 1983. They had a capacity for 50 passengers, and Widerøe introduced flight attendants and cabin pressurization for the first time in the company's history. From September 1983 the Dash 7s were used on the all-year route Oslo–Sogndal–Florø. Following SAS's rearrangement of routes in Northern Norway in 1983, Widerøe was subcontracted the routes Tromsø–Lakselv, Bardufoss–Bodø, and Tromsø–Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes–Bodø, all to be flown with Dash 7, as were the routes to Hammerfest and Vadsø. This required a further two Dash 7s to be delivered. By 1986 Widerøe had taken delivery of eight Dash 7s and the airline has operated 20 Twin Otters through history. Parliament passed a new series of regional airports in 1984. The airport in Førde was moved to Bringeland and three airports opened in Nordland—Værøy Airport, Røst Airport and Mosjøen Airport, Kjærstad—all served by Widerøe from they opened in 1986 and 1987. Following the demise of Norving, Widerøe took over flights to Rørvik Airport, Ryum in 1988 and three Finnmark airports in 1990—Hasvik Airport, Båtsfjord Airport and Vardø Airport, Svartnes. In 1986 Widerøe transported 816,000 passengers and had a revenue of NOK 479 million, of which NOK 87.7 was subsidies. From 20 October the airline banned smoking on its twelve Twin Otters and eight Dash 7s.
  Flight 710 took place on 6 May 1988 when a Dash 7 crashed into Torghatten during a landing approach, killing all 36 aboard. The controlled flight into terrain was in part caused by poor cockpit communication and the investigation discovered shortcomings in the airline's safety routines. It remains the worst accident involving a Dash 7 and is the fourth-deadliest aviation accident on Norwegian soil. A replacement Dash 7 was delivered in 1990. Flight 839 crashed one minute after take-off from Værøy Airport on 12 April 1990, killing all five on board 
caption: Værøy Airport opened in 1986 and closed in 1990 after Widerøe Flight 839
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