UN Chief Calls for Inquiry into Mysterious Dag Hammarskjold Plane Crash
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ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes further investigation is necessary to uncover the truth behind a 1961 plane crash in which Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and 15 others died.
According to Ban, questions remain about a possible aerial attack or other interference.
However, Ban said in a letter to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Monday that an independent review of new information about the mysterious crash put to rest claims that Hammarskjold was assassinated after surviving the crash.
Ban called for countries to disclose relevant records related to the crash.
Hammarskjold’s plane, a DC-6 known as the Albertina, crashed on Sept. 18, 1961 in the African bush in Northern Rhodesia, today’s Zambia, during a peace mission to newly-independent Congo.
The crash has long been shrouded in mystery. The lone survivor reported that there were explosions aboard the plane before it hit the ground, and speculation has raged that the plane was shot down, or that Hammarskjold was the subject of an assassination plot.
Pilot error has also been thought to contribute to the accident.
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