Avalanche kills five skiers in Troms
March 19, 2012
A large avalanche thundered down a mountainside in northern Norway on Monday afternoon, burying six persons from Switzerland and France who were skiing at Djupvik in Kåfjord. One Swiss tourist was dug out alive and rushed to hospital in Tromsø, but five others in the group were killed. Four of the skiers buried by the [...]
Doomed train’s engineer ‘distracted’
March 19, 2012
The man in charge of a brand-new train due for service on regional lines around Oslo was reportedly “distracted” and failed to see a sign warning him to reduce speed to 70 mph, according to a preliminary accident report. He then hit a curve at around twice that speed, which caused the train to tip [...]
Hope ran out, officers declared dead
March 18, 2012
Swedish police continued searching for and collecting the remains of a Norwegian military cargo plane and its crew of five Norwegian officers on Sunday, after wreckage was discovered earlier in the weekend and the aircraft was confirmed to have crashed into a mountainside in northern Sweden. All five officers were declared dead late Saturday night, [...]
Hercules plane missing, five on board
March 15, 2012
Five experienced Norwegian Air Force officers remained missing Friday after a Hercules military transport plane disappeared Thursday afternoon while participating in the international military exercises called “Cold Response” in northern Norway and Sweden. Massive search efforts involving helicopters and 23 snowmobiles was underway. The Hercules C-130 J is feared to have crashed or been forced [...]
Even more landslides in Trøndelag
March 14, 2012
The popular Dovrebanen train line between Trondheim and Oslo faced more disruption on Wednesday after another landslide washed out the ground under the tracks. The new landslide also cut off the E6 highway in the same area, while two more slides hit elsewhere. Emergency crews managed to get the E6 highway between Berkåk and Støren [...]
Suddenly spring, slide danger rises
March 13, 2012
UPDATED: Rain and an unusual spate of warm weather have raised the danger of landslides and avalanches all over Norway, with four separate slides hitting Sør-Trøndelag on Tuesday. One of them rammed the main route between Trondheim and Oslo, where the weather has never been so warm this early in the year. The biggest landslide, [...]
Ship grounded off Måløy
March 12, 2012
A German-owned container ship that grounded just before the weekend off the west coast of Norway near Måløy, in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, remained stuck on its rocky perch Monday but salvage operations were underway. “Things take time,” Rune Bergstrøm of the Norwegian Coastal Administration (Kystverket) told news bureau NTB. He initially indicated the [...]
Families trapped in car for 15 hours
February 24, 2012
Two adults and three children ended up spending 15 hours inside one of their cars after the Norwegian mountain highway where they were driving was blocked first by one avalanche and then by another. The two cars were hemmed in by the snow and ice that covered state highway RV13 near Røldalsvatnet in Hordaland County, [...]
Train engineer charged in derailment
February 22, 2012
The locomotive engineer who was at the controls of a brand-new train on a test run when it derailed last week has been charged in the accident, while police and a state commission continue their investigation. Police in Vestfold County confirmed to Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Wednesday that charges have been filed against the engineer, [...]
Train cleared in recent derailment
February 21, 2012
No technical deficiencies have been found on the brand-new Swiss-built train that derailed near Holmestrand last week. State railroad Jernbaneverket, meanwhile, hopes to re-open the commuter line where the accident occurred by the end of the week. Neither Jernbaneverket, state railway NSB nor state accident investigators could find anything wrong with the train involved, one [...]
Children burned down church
February 20, 2012
The 116-year-old Rørvik Church in the county of Nord-Trøndelag survived World War II but not the weekend game of two young boys who admitted to playing with fire in the church’s cellar. They ended up burning down the church on Saturday night. The two boys, who haven’t been publicly identified, were spotted near the church [...]
Probe continues into train accident
February 20, 2012
Officials at state railway NSB are investigating why one of the brand new trains in its major new upgrade program was traveling at a speed far too high for the tracks where it was on a test run last week. The high speed caused the train to derail, injuring all five persons on board and [...]
Avalanche danger hangs over holiday
February 20, 2012
Avalanche warnings have been posted in mountainous areas all over Norway, just as thousands of Norwegians headed to ski centers for the annual winter holiday called vinterferie. The danger was expected to last through the entire week. The warnings were strongest in the western mountains of southern Norway and in the mountains along the coast [...]
Ten injured at resort in Thailand
February 20, 2012
Ten Norwegians were among those injured when a chlorine container exploded at a resort hotel in Phuket, Thailand over the weekend. Nearly 40 tourists and hotel staff members were taken to hospital after the accident. A spokesman for Norway’s Foreign Ministry said eight of the 10 Norwegian guests at the Phuket Orchid Resort were admitted [...]
New train derails while being tested
February 15, 2012
UPDATED: The heavily trafficked rail line known as Vestfoldbanen was closed between Tønsberg and Holmestrand on Wednesday morning, after a new high-speed train on a test run derailed near Nykirke. All five persons on board the train were injured in the accident, one of them seriously. Police reported that four persons were sent to hospital [...]
