•

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12 OTHERS KILLED
'

ilqne Survivor Reports

Explosions on Flight
to Tshombe Talks
By DA.\"ID HALBERST.<\1'1
Specia.l to Tht :-;ew York Tim,~.

NDOLA, Northern Rhodesia.

Sept. 18--Secretary General
IDag Han1marskjold of the Unit-
·. ed Nations 1vas killed today
i 1vith t11·e!ve other persons in

the crash of a plane carrying

Rescue '"'orkers stucl,3-· '''reckage of the
•hitn to a meeting 1\ith President
; 11oise Tshombe of Katanga
: Province. The n1eeting had
l been called in an effort to end
the fighting in Katanga.
. The bodies of the Secretar1·
i General and his staff 1ve1:e
, found about four n1iles fro1n the
--- ·- . .. -.--'
: Ndola ait'port in J\'orthern
:.··.
' Rhodesia. The plane had been
, scheduled to land at the ail'-
'
: port last night.
[The Associated Press saic!
that 1nistaken identity and
tight security Jed it to report
The- New "!.·erk Tim.r!S
Associated Press Radiooi1oto erroneously Sunday night
Secretar)~ General"s plane in Nort;hern Rhodesia Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold
that Jllr. Han1n1arskjold's
plane had re;tched Ndola. l
The site of the crash is close
. to the border of the Congolese
·province of Ka tang a. The Congo
. is an area that has demanded
· n1t1ch of ~Ir. Han1maTskjold'~
•tin1e and patience in the last
fifteen n1onths.
Crash Stun:; U. X. :\ides
The ne\\"S of the ct·ash stunned
;. this area . Earlier todav United .
, Nations officials at Elisabeth-
1

i ville seen1ed dazed as they kept

\hearing reports that l\lr. Ham-
11narskjold had not arrived in
iNdola.
[The Associated Press re-
ported that the lone sur.,,ivor,
Harold 11. Julian, a United
Nations security guard, said
that a. series of explosions
i had preceded the crash. He
1 also said that the plane had
1
, turned a\\'ay fron1 a. land-
! ing, apparently on ~Ir. Ham-
i marskjold's orders.]
•
· A.t near-by Kit\ve, in Northern
!Rhodesia, President Tshon1be
· \\'as holding a ne\\"S conference
:and 1vas saying that he hoped to
, n1eet in a fe\V minutes \\"ith the
Secretar1· •
General and end the
. 11·ar 11•hen a ne11·sman said:
l "President Tshombe. l\[r.
'Han1n1arskjold is dead. His
body lies not far a\vay in the
·l\Teckage of his airpiane.''
::\lr. Tshon1be's face reflected
slvw l\ and horror seen1ed to
. >h•J"- in his eyes.
Tshon1be Expre!i~es Regret
"I regret it very n1uch if \Vhat
·you say is true, " he said. "He
' \Vas a 1nan v:ho enjoyed the re-
.spect of many African nations
!and I had hoped to reach a. set-
:tJement \Vith him that v.·ould
. leave Katanga free."
'
i Earlier in his ne\\'S confer-
:ence l\lr. Tshornbe had attacked
!United Nations policy in the
'
:Congo.
· 1'.[r. Ha1n1narskjold's plane \\"a:<
a. United Nations DC-6B. It left
.Leopoldville yesterday. ~Juell
. concerning the crash remains
! inexplicable.
The Secretary General's plane
: apparently crashed after it kad
circled the N do la airport t\\.'iCP.
and had been \\o-a,·ed in. No one
: here could offer any explana·
tion for the crash.
It \\·as believed U1at the plane
, might ha\'e taken a circuituous
route to avoid the Katanga
area, \vhich is patrolled by one
Katanga jet fighter. This might
account for the plane's late
arrival here and it might ac-
count for some fatigue on the
part of the pilot.
There apparently 11·as only
one sur\·h·or. a n1an 1vho was
found se\·erely burned and in
a delirious state near the plane.
He 1vas taken to a hospital.
Those who have been trying
to end the Katanga fighting be-
lieve that ?>Ir. Hammarskjold's
death \Vas a terrible blow to
hopes fo1· a truce.
;\fr. Tshombe has refused to
meet 1\ith United Nations offi-
cials in Elisabethville, the Ka-
Continued on Page lt, Column 1

Published: September 19, 1961

Copyright © The New York Times
·. Ha111rnarskjold ~e.d
- - -·--·- -·- ----- - - - -
in-Air G~ashin
- ··· -- .
Rhod~sia on Way to Meeting With Tsholllbe
---- -----'- ----=------ -- - - - -- ----'- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - = - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1_2 OTHERS DEAD;

'BLASTS REPORTED
Lone Survivor Says Plane 1

Veered From a Landing

After Explosions

Continued From Page 1, 'CoL 8

tanga capital, since the United
Nations took over there last
Wednesday In an attempt to re-
store the province to the con·
trol of the central Government 1

in Leopoldville. I

It is now feared that the Ka.-

tanga fighting will become
worse. .
At the scene of the crash in
the tree-covered African plaiJl
there was a Jong scar of bro~en
trees and torn up dirt where the
plane had rammed through. A
giant anthill stood at the end of
the pa.th. All that remained
of the maiit fuselage was a
rray circle of ashes.
The only recognizable part of
the plane was an engine cowling
that had been thrown sixty
yards behind the wreck.
Only 1tr. Hammarskjold's
body was practically unburned
and im1nediately recognizable.
Rescue workers said they had
found a. total of twelve bodies
and that one appeared to be the
body of a woman. The one sur-
vivor had lain in agony for fif· 1

teen hours. j

The decision of the 56-year-

old Secretary General to fly
here to meet Mr. Tshombe was
a last-minute one, prompted by
the Katanga fighting.
Before the fighting, United
Nations officials worked hard
to persuade President Tshombe
to come to Leopoldvil!e to meet
the Secretary General. Mr.
Tshombe refused.
He said he had not been in-
vited by ~Ir. Hammarskjold to
meet him in Leopoldville, but
had rather been invited to a
meeting of officials of the cen-
tral Government that l'v1r. Ham-
marskjold would attend. The
next day the fighting started in
Katanga.
British Urged ~leeting
The planned meeting of l\tr.
Tshombe and 1!r. Hammar-
skjold appeared to have been
prompted by British diplomatic
officials in Elisabet.hville and in
and in London. It was a well-
kept secret until the moment
that both parties \Vere virtually
on their way here.
It also appeared that Ndola
had been a site suggested by
President Tshombe. Rhodesian•
officials are considerably more
sympathetic to his cause than
to that of the United Nations.
l\Ir. Hammarskjold's plane
was originally scheduled to land
here at 10:30 last night. At 12:10
A. M. the plane was in contact
with the control tower and \Vas
talked down to 6,000 feet. That
\Vas the last contact with the
plane.
After the normal interval.
overdue procedure was put into
operation. Yet even this morn-
ing when l!Ir. Hammarskjold had 1
not arrived there was no gen-
eral state of alarm.
Spotter planes searched hnn-
dreds of miles. The police were ·
alerted and they searched the
countryside checking country
roads for any sign of the plane.
Airports for hundreds of miles
around were queried as to
whether the Secretary General
had landed.
Then the first charred wreck-
age was spotted by a Raval
Rhodesian jet plane. Col. Don
Gaylor, United States Air At-
tache at Pretoria, flew his plane
slowly in on the course taken
by · the Hamn1arskjold plane
when it was last in touch \Vith
the Ndola tower. His course
brought hin1 right over the
wreck.

Published: September 19, 1961

Copyright © The New York Times