Widerøe Flight 710

Widerøe Flight 710 was a regional flight operated by Widerøe along the Norwegian coastline between Trondheim and Bodø with intermediate stops at Namsos, Brønnøysund and Sandnessjøen. On 6 May 1988 the flight, operated by a de Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft (registration LN-WFN) crashed in fog into nearby Torghatten mountain on landing, en route from Namsos to Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy, killing all thirty-six passengers and crew. It remains the worst accident involving a Dash 7.^[1][2] The flight was delayed and fully loaded when it left Trondheim due to a technical problem with an earlier flight. Even a jumpseat in the cockpit was occupied by a passenger. After the intermediate landing at Namsos, the plane was no longer full, but a passenger remained in the jumpseat, and the cockpit voice recorder picked up conversation between the passenger and pilot.

The report from the aviation accident commission found that the plane had descended about four nautical miles too early. No fault with the plane itself was found.^[2]

References

v • d • e ← 1987 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1988 1989→ Avianca Flight 410 (March 17) — Aloha Airlines Flight 243 (April 28) — Widerøe Flight 710 (May 6) — TACA Flight 110 (May 24) — Air France Flight 296 (June 26) — Iran Air Flight 655 (July 3) — British International Helicopters Sikorsky S-61N crash (July 13) — Zia-ul-Haq (August 17) — Ramstein airshow disaster (August 28) — Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 (August 31) — Indian Airlines Flight 113 (October 19) — 1988 Mexico Learjet 24 crash (October 25) — LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 (November 2) — Remscheid A-10 crash (December 8) — Pan Am Flight 103 (December 21) Bold indicates incidents resulting at least 50 deaths (current article is always in bold) Orange color indicates the deadliest incident in 1988