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UN chief urges disclosure of information of Hammarskjold plane crash

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged member states to disclose information related to the plane crash that killed former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold.

Noting a report of an independent panel of experts regarding the investigation into the accident, Ban said some of the panel's requests for information have not been conclusively answered.

"There is a possibility that unreleased material relating to the crash of flight SE-BDY on the night between 17 and 18 September 1961 may still be available," said a statement released by Ban's spokesperson.

Ban established a panel in March to examine new allegations regarding the crash, near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, of the Swedish-operated Douglas DC6 carrying Hammarskjold and 15 others.

The panel submitted its report in June to the Secretary-General who sent them in early July to the 193-member UN General Assembly along with his recommendations to investigate some of the allegations further.

"The Secretary-General reaffirms that he is personally invested in fulfilling our duty to the distinguished former Secretary-General and those who accompanied him, to endeavor to establish the facts after so many years, and will inform the Assembly on any further progress made before the end of its seventieth session," said the statement.

There have been allegations over the years that the Swedish plane carrying the then UN's second secretary-general on a peace mission in Africa, originally believed to have crashed because of pilot error, was shot down instead.

The panel found Hammarskjold and 14 other passengers died on the night of the Sept. 17 to 18, 1961 crash of the propeller-driven aircraft SE-BDY and that the 16th victim died five days later.

Hammarskjold, the second UN secretary-general, was trying to negotiate a cease-fire involving secessionists from Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Enditem