- A Norwegian investigation into whether British military
jets were involved in a fatal mid-air collision with a passenger plane
over northern Norway was thrown into fresh controversy yesterday by the
Ministry of Defence.
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- A parliamentary inquiry in Oslo is examining the circumstances
of the crash on 11 March 1982 in which 15 people were killed when their
turboprop plane came down in the sea near Mehamn, in Norway's northernmost
province of Finnmark.
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- More than 30 people have reported seeing military planes
flying in the area, according to a BBC investigation, and there has been
speculation in the Norwegian press that a damaged Harrier jet that landed
at the Bardufoss airbase, 300 miles south of Mehman, had been the cause
of the crash. In a written answer to the House of Lords last year, the
MoD admitted that a Harrier on exercises in the area had been damaged that
day and made an emergency landing after it was "struck by a ricochet
during a live-firing exercise".
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- Yesterday, the MoD said it had made "an unfortunate
error" and that the jet, from RAF Number One Squadron, had sustained
"no damage".
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- "The pilot declared an emergency because he believed
the plane had been struck by a ricochet. A subsequent check on the ground,
however, found no damage to the aircraft," a ministry spokeswoman
said. She said "a noise" could have caused the pilot to think
he had been struck in mid-air.
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- The MoD has confirmed that there were 10 Harrier jets
in the area taking part in a Nato exercise, but denies that any aircraft
came into proximity with a civilian plane. However, reports of sightings
of a damaged military aircraft in the region at the time have fuelled claims
that the MoD covered up the circumstances of the crash because it occurred
within forbidden airspace. Although Norway is a member of Nato, it declared
Finnmark off-limits to the alliance during the Cold War, over worries that
military activity in the province might provoke the neighbouring Soviet
Union. Last year a retired lieutenant-colonel, Per Garvin, said that he
watched by radar as two British Harriers entered Finnmark, and said that
one of the pilots requested an immediate landing because of technical problems
after the commuter plane crashed.
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- A technician at the Bardufoss airbase near Tromsoe, Stein
Trondsen, said that he saw a damaged Harrier in a hangar the morning after
the crash.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=498017
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