What happened
A flight transporting 28 children from Tunisia toward Norway was en route from Tunis to Oslo with an intermediate stop in Brussels. While flying at an altitude of 3,000 feet after passing through the Netherlands, the crew received weather updates indicating that visibility at their destination would be approximately 12 km beneath the cloud layer.
At approximately 16:50 local time, while approaching Oslo from a southern direction, the crew requested a QDM bearing, which air traffic control provided three minutes later. Despite encountering multiple cloud layers and degraded visibility, the aircraft continued its descent. During this phase of flight, the aircraft type struck the slope of a hill and crashed into a forested area situated roughly 8 km north of Tofte, approximately 32 km south of Fornebu Airport.
Following the loss of all radio communications and the failure of the aircraft to reach its destination, search and rescue operations were initiated. The wreckage was located two days after the incident. Among the occupants, a 12-year-old boy was discovered alive and subsequently moved to a hospital in Oslo. However, the accident resulted in 34 fatalities.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the crew chose to proceed with the approach to Oslo-Fornebu Airport using Visual Flight Rules (VFR) while operating in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). The presence of several cloud layers at altitudes of 400, 750, and 900 meters significantly obscured the landscape, meaning the crew could not identify the rising terrain during their descent.