Post date: Mar 17, 2012 5:6:4 PM
KEBNEKAISE MOUNTAIN, SWEDEN (MARCH 17, 2012)(NORWEGIAN ARMED FORCES HANDOUT - Debris from the wreckage of the missing Norwegian military transport aircraft in the Arctic near the top of Sweden's highest mountain has been found, officials said.
Wreckage of the Norwegian military plane that went missing in Sweden has been found. Search continues for five missing crew members.
An aircraft crew spotted debris from the wreckage on a glacier east the 2,100-metre (6,890-foot) Kebnekaise peak late Friday (March 16), officials said.
"As of nine o'clock this morning police took over responsibility for the search and rescue efforts. We have found wreckage debris we suspect are from the missing plane in two areas. That is at the Rabots and Bjorlings glaciers on two sides of the Kebnekaise peak," a Swedish police officer, Hakan Ahlseling said on Saturday (March 17).
The plane hit the western wall of the Kebnekaise mountain, Norway's defence minister told a news conference on Saturday.
The Norwegian Armed Forces said a ground military unit has confirmed the findings. The search continues for the plane's body and five Norwegian officers who had been aboard.
Ahlseling said rescue workers had not found any sign of the five crew members.
"Nothing as far as I have been informed. We presume and are searching for survivors," he said.
The Lockheed Martin <LMT.N> C-130J Hercules transport craft lost contact with air traffic controllers at 1353GMT on Thursday (March 15) in high winds and snow as it took part in a 15-nation military exercise organised by Norway.
After a frustrating air and ground search by Swedish, Danish and Norwegian rescue teams, an aircraft crew spotted apparent wreckage on a glacier just east of 2,100-metre (6,890-foot) Kebnekaise peak on Friday evening, officials said.
The search was complicated by the lack of any signal from the Hercules' automatic distress beacon as well as snow, poor visibility and avalanche danger some 150 km (95 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, officials said.
Weather conditions had improved on Saturday, but increased risks of avalanches is hampering rescue efforts.
The Hercules, built in 2010, had been en route to Kiruna, Sweden, from Evenes air base in northern Norway when it disappeared. It was taking part in Cold Response, an exercise in the Norway's High North involving more than 16,000 military personnel.
The officers were aged 35 to 46.