This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/dag-hammarskjold-crash-was-pilot-error
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Dag Hammarskjöld crash was pilot error Dag Hammarskjöld crash was pilot error | |
| (about 13 hours later) | |
| Several of your correspondents have complained of lack of transparency on the part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the tragic death of UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld in an air crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on the night of 17-18 September 1961 (Letters, 29 August). There is ample evidence available for study. As almost certainly the only British official still living who was present at Ndola airport throughout that fateful night (as a junior diplomat I accompanied the British high commissioner, Lord Alport, who had been instructed to arrange ceasefire talks between Hammarskjöld and Moise Tshombe, the president of the breakaway Congolese province of Katanga), I have written an account of the night’s events that was published in the Guardian (25 August 2011). Lord Alport’s official dispatch to the FCO of 25 September 1961, formally reporting on the developments prior to, during and immediately after the crash, is publicly available, as also, among other sources, is the report and voluminous accompanying documentation of the privately sponsored inquiry by Stephen Sedley of September 2013, to which I also gave lengthy evidence. | Several of your correspondents have complained of lack of transparency on the part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the tragic death of UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld in an air crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on the night of 17-18 September 1961 (Letters, 29 August). There is ample evidence available for study. As almost certainly the only British official still living who was present at Ndola airport throughout that fateful night (as a junior diplomat I accompanied the British high commissioner, Lord Alport, who had been instructed to arrange ceasefire talks between Hammarskjöld and Moise Tshombe, the president of the breakaway Congolese province of Katanga), I have written an account of the night’s events that was published in the Guardian (25 August 2011). Lord Alport’s official dispatch to the FCO of 25 September 1961, formally reporting on the developments prior to, during and immediately after the crash, is publicly available, as also, among other sources, is the report and voluminous accompanying documentation of the privately sponsored inquiry by Stephen Sedley of September 2013, to which I also gave lengthy evidence. |
| There are many conspiracy theories, but unless further inquiries initiated by the present UN secretary general produce new and conclusive evidence to the contrary, I shall continue to believe that the tragic crash was due to pilot error.Brian Unwin Dorking, Surrey | There are many conspiracy theories, but unless further inquiries initiated by the present UN secretary general produce new and conclusive evidence to the contrary, I shall continue to believe that the tragic crash was due to pilot error.Brian Unwin Dorking, Surrey |
| • My brother Bengt-Åke Bengs wrote to you in 1966 including a pamphlet he had written about the Ndola accident. My brother had been a captain with the airline SAS and had 4,000 piloting hours with the UN in similar operations in Africa. He put forward the theory that the accident was due to pilot error. He had seen reports and interviews taken immediately after the accident which had been flown direct to Stockholm and kept secret. Joy (Hjordis) DorsettSt Albans, Hertfordshire | • My brother Bengt-Åke Bengs wrote to you in 1966 including a pamphlet he had written about the Ndola accident. My brother had been a captain with the airline SAS and had 4,000 piloting hours with the UN in similar operations in Africa. He put forward the theory that the accident was due to pilot error. He had seen reports and interviews taken immediately after the accident which had been flown direct to Stockholm and kept secret. Joy (Hjordis) DorsettSt Albans, Hertfordshire |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |