A DHC-2 Turbo Beaver crashed shortly after takeoff from Sweden’s Örebro airport on Thursday, killing all nine people on board. The aircraft was carrying a pilot and eight skydivers, all members of a local skydiving club. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven declared a day of mourning for the victims, whose names have not been released to the public.
The aircraft went down shortly before 7:30 p.m. local time. A significant post-crash fire occurred, which was extinguished by firefighters at approximately 8:20 p.m. It is not yet known what might have caused the accident, but it is believed that the aircraft may have experienced a problem during takeoff.
“Something happened in the middle of the runway,” said Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (Statens haverikommission/SHK) department chief Peter Swaffer. “The plane didn’t get up very high before it went down to the left of the runaway.” SHK has dispatched a team to the crash site to investigate.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Hey AvWeb, the screaming headline (9 killed), the first sentence of the first paragraph, the second sentence of the second paragraph (a ‘significant’ post-crash fire occurred) and that’s about it. The only insightful information in 100 words or less is “It is not yet known what might have caused the accident…” Maybe a little patience would yield a more valuable paragraph… more data, more insight, fewer breathless but meaningless words.
Better to report the KNOWN FACTS (“9 killed, post crash fire”) than breathless conjecture. What other VERIFIED information is available and ought to be reported— and what would a reader DO with unverified additional information?
As Jack Webb (as Sgt. Friday) used to say—“Just the facts, Ma’mm!
I don’t disagree one bit. Factual information is key. And so are false impressions created by hyper drive titles. Basically, there were no relevant facts in the article beyond the screaming headline and mention in the article that the accident aircraft was a Turbo Beaver. Then the author of the hints darkly that “there may have experienced a problem with the takeoff”. Now THAT’s useful speculation considering that the aircraft crashed on takeoff. I wish the Sweden accident was THE only accident in the world. Slow news days, I guess. A brief look at the ASIAS (FAA Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing) system for the two week period from 28 Jun through 12 Jul shows that US pilots experienced 15 fatal accidents and over 150 non-fatal accidents. Even a little bit of mining would uncover many with preliminary information of value. A few more minutes of googling the fatal accidents would likely turn up multiple news reports with some factual information easily verified. Just shouting out a sky diving accident occurred without offering the key information that it was in Sweden, there likely won’t be any information published by the NTSB because the aircraft was foreign is sort of like shouting “fire” in a theatre in Los Angeles, when the ‘fire’ is actually in a theatre in San Paulo, Brazil. Hate to disappoint you, no mia culpa here. I stand by the original comment.
???
This reports exactly what happened and what is known now. Should there be no news until the NTSB is done 2 years later?
Good early initial factual coverage Kate. Thank you for your journalism.
It’s so easy to be a critic — thanks for the coverage Kate and my condolences to the families of those who perished.
You would be amazed how head-spinningly short a person’s career in the news-reporting industry would be if they held off on reporting events until they had enough info to produce a documentary or write a book.
Another pandering politician.
Does s/he have day of mourning when a bad road pileup results in several deaths?
Would be many days in a year.
I will, however, accept criticism for the typos in my reply to Jim Hanson. Those were clearly mine, and unforgivable.