Hello forum.
My name is Eirik Berger, I am Norwegian and have lived in Longyearbyen for many years. Right now I stay in Tromsø but will move back to Longyearbyen in march. I have gathered information about this disaster for several years, and the story have so many interesting aspects that I will make a book. The disaster itself of course, but also the Russian-Norwegian disputes and cooperation. An "unknown" story is all the volunteers from Longyearbyen who worked in the mountain, not prepared for what met them.
My material is documents, reports, logs, Norwegian media and interviews with Norwigian volunteers and official. I have no Russian (or Ukranian) sources at all. Well I have this thread and the airdisaster.ru website. Since I do not read or speak Russian it is not very easy to find Russian sources. My manuscript would be unbalanced with Norwegian sources only.
So if any of you know about newpaper articles, or other sources of material about this accident, I would be happy if you let me know. My e-mail adress is post (a) f45 (dot) no
There is not much information available about Vnukovo Airlines, what company was it? Did it only perform charter flights or did it also have ordinary routes? Information about Vnukovo would be valuable to me.
I have tried to contact Trust Arktikugol (coal company) in Barentsburg, but they have not answered my letters. It was their workers/families that were on board the flight. I have also contacted the Russian embassy in Oslo and The Norwegian embassy in Moscow to find Russian sources - without luck.
There is an image from Svalbardposten September 13 1996 of a man working at the crash site, his name is Pavel Serikov. He lost three members of his family in the crash. I know it is a long shot, but this is a man I would like to get in contact with...
Some of the images of the plane (in intact form) posted in this thread is known to me and I have got a few of them as high resolution images from the photographers.
Note:
This image is probably not from the accident
http://aviaforum.ru/threads/26992
As far as I can tell from the image it is located close to the aurora station and is most likely a Junker JU-88 that were destroyed during WWII near the German base Bansö. The parts from the VKO2801 were transported down from the mountain but were stored closer to town, not were this image indicates.
The image below from the crashsite with the bags lined up in front, I have infact not seen before. Does anyone know who took this picture?
Best regards
Eirik Berger
Postboks 4414, Eidkjosen
NO-9282 Tromsoe