Hurum air disaster

Infobox Airliner accident|name=Hurum air disaster
Date=November 20, 1949
Site=Hurum, Norway
Type=Unknown
Fatalities=34
Injuries=1
Aircraft Type=Douglas DC-3 (C-47A-25-DK)
Operator=Aero Holland
Tail Number=PH-TFA
Passengers=30
Crew=4
Survivors=1

The Hurum air disaster was an Aero Holland plane crash in Hurum southwest of Oslo, Norway as it was approaching Fornebu airport on November 20 1949.

The plane, a Douglas DC-3 with tail number PH-TFA was en route from Brussels-Zaventem Airport. Among the 30 passengers on board were 26 Jewish children from Tunisia on their way to Norway, as an intermediary before making aliyah to Israel. The plane crashed into the forest at 16:56, and 34 of the 35 people on board perished. A 12-year old boy named Isaac Allal was the only survivor.

The crash was at the time the second worst air disaster in Norway (after the Kvitbjørn disaster in 1947 which killed 35 people) and caused a lot of public sympathy, and the leader of the Norwegian Labor Party, Håkon Lie started a fundraiser to build a Norwegian village in Israel called Moshav Norge ref|lie.

A memorial to the victims has been raised at the crash site. It is symbolically fenced and decorated with Stars of David. Parts of the wreckage are also at the memorial.

See also

*Aviation in Norway

References

[http://odin.dep.no/jd/norsk/publ/utredninger/NOU/012001-020002/index-hov004-n-f-a.html Norwegian report on Norway's relationship with Israel] (in Norwegian)
* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19491120-0 Aviation-safety.net entry on the Hurum disaster]
* [http://www.kjentmannsmerket.org/Hurumminnesmerke.htm Page about the memorial] (in Norwegian)