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00:00Tragic accident or calculated murder?
00:06Now let's see the elevations.
00:08Investigators reopen a 55-year-old mystery.
00:12This was a major world event.
00:15What caused the crash that killed the UN Secretary General?
00:22It was devastating.
00:27This gentleman was a champion of world peace.
00:31How did a top-secret peace mission in Africa end in death?
00:35It's tough to see how they could have screwed this up.
00:37Certain people believe it's just not possible that Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a common accident.
00:43It had to be something more.
00:46Controversial theories abound.
00:48Dag Hammarskjöld was murdered, period.
00:51But the truth may finally be within reach.
00:55As an investigator, I don't want to close any doors.
01:26Swedish air crash investigator Sven Hammerberg is entering a world of intrigue and deadly Cold War conspiracies.
01:37A special commission reporting to the UN needs him to determine whether a 1961 air disaster was an accident or an assassination.
01:47The commission knew that I had some experience in that field of old aircraft accidents.
01:54So they called me.
01:58The pressure is on to get to the bottom of an aviation mystery that's as controversial today as it was 55 years ago.
02:07There's a wide range of things that have never ever been adequately considered.
02:13They might not bring the ultimate truth, but it requires to look carefully again.
02:21Hammerberg studies the events from the night of the fateful flight.
02:32A United Nations transport plane, the Albertina, is on a vital mission in Central Africa.
02:40Estimate of beam Andola at 2347.
02:44Arrival time 0020.
02:48The destination is Andola Airport in the British colony of northern Rhodesia.
02:54Roger, Andola weather, wind 120 at 7 knots, visibility 5 to 10 miles with a slight smoke haze.
03:02Controllers and local dignitaries anxiously await the arrival of one of the most important people in the world.
03:11Set altimeter 230.1.
03:15Roger. Request descent clearance at 57.
03:20Roger at 57, cleared to descend to 6,000 feet.
03:25On board the DC-6 is UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.
03:31At least they're willing to talk. What else do we know about their latest demands?
03:36He's flying in from the Congo to hold high-level peace talks with a rebel leader.
03:42Hammarskjold and most likely members of his entourage on board were pretty aware that this is a difficult mission.
03:51It was a secretary general for whom a physical risk was integral part of his job.
04:01All right, descending to 6,000, no traffic ahead.
04:066,000, yes sir.
04:08Kept in is 35-year-old Per Hollenquist.
04:12Our visibility should be pretty good once we get down there.
04:1629-year-old Lars Litten is Hollenquist's first officer.
04:20The life of flying a transport airplane in the Congo during the 1960s, during the decolonization era, was indeed a fantastic challenge for everyone.
04:32Former pilot and NTSB investigator Robert McIntosh flew transport missions for the UN throughout the 60s.
04:40During my time in the Congo I was probably a lucky guy because there were mercenaries around and I never found any bullet holes in the aircraft that I was flying.
04:507,000. All right. Give me 2,000 rpm and 20 inches.
04:56Minimum descent altitude?
04:585,000 feet, but we'll have the runway in sight long before then.
05:02The flight left the Congolese capital, Leopoldville, a little more than six hours ago.
05:08For security reasons, it's flown an indirect route to Ndola.
05:13They made arrangements in the route of the plane to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
05:20Number one, we need to extend the ceasefire. We can't be seen as being the enemy here.
05:27To prevent an ambush, no flight plan has been filed and the pilots have maintained radio silence for most of the flight.
05:37The mission is a closely guarded secret.
05:44I am proceeding to Salisbury Arm, Ndola.
05:48Negative.
05:50Even at this late stage, the crew needs to be secretive about the mission.
05:55Are you staying in Ndola?
05:57They don't know who might be listening in.
06:00Negative.
06:03Due to parking difficulties, we'd like to know your intentions.
06:07We will give them on the ground.
06:11Roger.
06:13The security of the airport and of the flying environment was sometimes in question.
06:20There were opportunities for counter forces to perhaps shoot at aircraft that were on final approach.
06:29Pre-descent checklist, please.
06:33Anti-collision lights.
06:35On.
06:38Cylinder head check.
06:40Okay.
06:41Speed to 180 knots.
06:47How much longer until we land?
06:50The secretary general and his delegation should be on the ground in about 10 minutes.
07:00Your light's in sight. Overhead, Ndola.
07:04Descending.
07:06Roger. Report reaching 6,000 feet.
07:09Roger.
07:10Okay. They're 10 minutes away.
07:14After the unusual flight path, the plane now needs to fly past Ndola airport and circle back to touchdown on its only runway.
07:24Ndola was a bit, we say, out in the sticks with a little control tower and with some surrounding hills.
07:33And certainly at night it was extremely difficult to make approaches there.
07:39180 knots, sir.
07:41Good. Thank you.
07:43You certainly have to be extremely vigilant to the hazards around such a small airport.
07:51The crew begins the final swooping left-hand turn that will line them up with the runway below.
08:04The mission to Ndola is about to begin.
08:09It's a mission that could change the fate of nations.
08:14The United Nations Security Council meeting again to deal with the difficult and dangerous Congo situation.
08:21It was resolved to call upon Belgium to withdraw her troops...
08:24The Congo in the early 60s was of utmost priority in the Cold War.
08:30It was of top geostrategic importance.
08:35The Congo recently won its independence from Belgium.
08:39But the new nation's southern region of Katanga has declared itself an independent state.
08:46A bloody civil war has erupted.
08:49And with the world's richest uranium mine in Katanga, world powers, including the US and the Soviet Union, are backing opposing factions.
09:00The risk of a global catastrophe is very real.
09:05One needs to recall that the nuclear bombs that were thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were supplied with uranium from Katanga.
09:17Hammarskjöld hopes to resolve the deadly conflict and help reunite the Congo.
09:24But on the ground in Ndola, controllers are growing concerned.
09:30Albertina, Ndola Tower, do you read?
09:34The Secretary General's plane is overdue.
09:38Where did the aircraft go? Why have we not seen it?
09:42Albertina, Ndola Tower, please acknowledge.
09:45Where are you? Why am I not hearing from you?
09:49That would have been very present in the minds of a controller at that point in time.
09:54The controller contacts other airports in the region.
09:59Salisbury, Ndola Airport, have you heard any word from the UN Albertina?
10:04Nothing at all.
10:06Perhaps the Albertina's secret mission has taken it to a different destination at the last minute.
10:14Lusaka, Ndola Airport, have you had any contact with the UN flight?
10:19Negative, no contact here.
10:24The plane carrying one of the most important men on the planet is missing.
10:30It's a mystery that will haunt Ndola and the world for decades to come.
10:38By dawn, news of the UN Secretary General's disappearance is spreading fast.
10:44We heard that he was missing, so what were we to do?
10:50We weren't going to sit around Ndola.
10:53Clyde Sanger covered Hammersholtz's mission in Africa for the Guardian newspaper.
10:58A number of journalists got together and chartered a plane and flew over the airport.
11:05We took the plane and flew over the area and spotted where the plane had come down.
11:12On the side of a hill, nine miles west of the airport, journalists spot a gash in the trees.
11:19And it was quite broad. It had cut through a lot of trees.
11:23And it was an open space like that, with stumps of trees.
11:29Whatever went wrong in the skies above, the flight clearly ended with a violent impact,
11:38followed by intense fire.
11:44When local authorities arrive, they find bodies surrounded by badly scorched wreckage.
11:53They said, no, stay back, stay back. And so we had only a distant view.
12:00They found a quite large fuselage in one place, which we could see.
12:05And we were told afterwards that Dag Hammersholtz was killed.
12:12For over eight years, Dag Hammersholtz spoke for and personified the United Nations organization.
12:18An economist from Sweden, he took over from Secretary General...
12:21The Secretary General had been a very famous guy, a champion of world peace.
12:26So this was a major world event.
12:29I know that I'm speaking for all of my fellow Americans, expressing a deep sense of shock and loss
12:37in the untimely death of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Dag Hammersholtz.
12:43With the loss of Dag Hammersholtz and his delegation, prospects for peace in the Congo fade.
12:50Regional power brokers have no interest in following through on the Secretary General's mission.
12:57His mission to continue to attempt to reunite the province that he was concerned with, Katanga province,
13:05was counter to the interests of a lot of people.
13:09I think it's pretty obvious that there were a plethora of interests out there
13:13who were not really mourning the death of Hammersholtz.
13:18The Cold War politics surrounding the flight to Indola lead many to speculate
13:23that the Secretary General's plane was shot down.
13:27Was there anyone who wanted to see Hammersholtz dead?
13:31Where do you want me to start and where to end?
13:36The world may soon learn more about the crash from a surprising source.
13:40Incredibly, there is a sole survivor.
13:45Against all odds, a 36-year-old UN security officer lived through the heavy impact and raging fire.
13:57Harold Julian is in critical condition.
14:00But if he can recover and tell his story, he might provide valuable evidence.
14:09While they wait to hear what Julian will say,
14:12Rhodesian government investigators begin searching for clues in the wreckage.
14:19They face a daunting task.
14:24About 80% of the fuselage is completely melted.
14:28Every air safety investigator has a given set of things that he's really looking for.
14:32He wants to find out if the whole airplane is there.
14:35Is there something missing? He's looking for the tail, he's looking for the wing tips,
14:38he's looking for the power plants, etc.
14:41All those basic things are elemental.
14:44That's it, guys. Slow and meticulous.
14:54Amidst the burnt wreckage, there are also personal effects.
15:03Poignant reminders of lives cut short.
15:08Even these can help investigators learn more.
15:14Wristwatches damaged by the sudden impact reveal the exact time of the crash.
15:2212.13
15:24The Secretary General's plane hit the ground three minutes after its last radio transmission.
15:32What happened in those three minutes? Where were they in those three minutes?
15:36Do we have witnesses? Do we have a direction? What can we tell happened there?
15:40And indeed, was there a possibility of some interdiction from an outside force?
15:46Perhaps a ground fire? Somebody trying to shoot down the airplane? Or from the air?
15:55Your light's in sight. Overhead Andola descending.
15:59Critical questions about the flight's final moments will not be answered by a voice or data recorder.
16:06The DC-6 was not equipped with either.
16:16The only chance of getting a first-hand account about what happened rests with the badly injured UN security officer.
16:25Dag said,
16:29go back.
16:31Harold Julian's few brief words are astounding.
16:36It blew up.
16:40He suggests that the plane blew up before it crashed.
16:47We need to go back!
16:57Then there was the crash.
17:01He was not in good shape after the accident.
17:05He had heavy medicine and so on, so it's hard to measure the value of his statement.
17:16Investigators hope Julian will provide more details after he recovers, but he never does.
17:23He dies five days after the accident.
17:26Did it really blow up before the crash, like he says?
17:30Could a missile or bomb have taken down the Secretary General's plane?
17:38The separatist rebels do have a fighter jet capable of shooting down a DC-6.
17:48A French-made Fouga Magister has been attacking planes in the region.
17:53The Fouga could have been waiting for the DC-6. They could have used force.
17:59Investigators study the pilot's handbook for the Fouga.
18:04They discover that the fighter's maximum combat range is 419 kilometers, or 260 miles.
18:12It's a key finding, because the nearest fighter base is almost 425 kilometers away.
18:18There's no way a fighter jet took off from this base, shot down a plane here,
18:24and then made it back to the base safely.
18:26The possibility of a Fouga fighter in the middle of the night finding this aircraft,
18:31shooting it down, returning to its base,
18:34it didn't fit the conditions that were there on that given night.
18:39Investigators study the metal skin of the DC-6,
18:43looking for any evidence that it was ripped open by machine gun fire or a missile.
18:50They find none.
18:56Going a step further, they test ash from the crash site for the presence of explosives.
19:01They tried to look for it. They divided the metal parts in small pieces and so on,
19:07and they didn't find anything in that way.
19:12What's more, when investigators study key pieces of wreckage from the DC-6,
19:17everything points to a plane that was coming in for a routine landing.
19:23The Fouga is the only aircraft in the world that has ever been in a crash site.
19:28Everything points to a plane that was coming in for a routine landing.
19:32Gear down. Flaps out.
19:35These guys are getting ready to land.
19:40Flaps 30. Flaps 30.
19:44The landing gear was down. The flaps were extended.
19:48Okay, speed down to 120 knots.
19:52If there had been an attack, they would have wanted to get the heck out of there.
19:57And consequently, the evidence just doesn't speak of an attack from ground or air.
20:06Despite all the rumors, Rhodesian investigators can find nothing pointing to foul play.
20:12The cause of the crash that killed 16 people on a secret UN mission remains a mystery.
20:19Going down! Going down! Brakes! Brakes!
20:30Eleven days after the accident in Andola,
20:33dignitaries from around the world gather in Dag Hammarskjöld's hometown of Uppsala for a state funeral.
20:40The wreath placed by his family contains a single word. Why?
20:47It was devastating. Hammarskjöld was a person of utmost integrity.
20:54He believed in justice. He believed in equality. He believed in solidarity.
21:03Digging into the Albertina's maintenance records, investigators make a disturbing find.
21:09Bullet hole in engine number two. That's not something you see every day.
21:15Just hours before the DC-6 took off for Andola, the plane was hit by gunfire.
21:23There were issues with groupings.
21:28There were issues with groups that would fire at aircraft on the ground, trying to disrupt things.
21:37Mechanics repaired damage to an engine and the plane was deemed fit to fly.
21:44The discovery leads investigators to wonder.
21:48So, just how badly damaged was that engine?
21:57We lost engine number two. I need max power number one.
22:04Perhaps the damaged engine failed at a critical moment, causing the Albertina to suddenly lose altitude.
22:20If the theory is right, investigators should be able to confirm it by taking a close look at the propeller blades.
22:27We have to check each and every one, see if there was indications of bending on those propeller blades as they entered the forest.
22:37These things must have been spinning mighty fast to chop this amount of wood.
22:41The damage to the blades leaves no doubt. They were spinning normally when they hit the trees.
22:48They are all quite symmetrical and indicative of power plants that were fully operational as the crash took place.
23:03Well, it can't be engine failure.
23:07The bullet damage to the engine did not cause the crash.
23:17According to the chart, it should have been 6,000 feet here.
23:22Next, investigators study the navigational chart for Ndola.
23:27The top of the hill is 4,300 feet.
23:30They calculate the altitude the Albertina should have been flying at when it crashed.
23:35Add 70 feet for the trees.
23:38That means he should have been nearly 1,700 feet above the treetops.
23:47At the crash site, damage to the trees shows that the plane travelled forward for more than 750 feet before coming to rest.
23:57That distance means the plane hit the treetops at a shallow angle while descending gradually.
24:04The plane went down in the trees in a gentle angle, just like before landing.
24:12OK, I'll control. You look for the lights.
24:15Roger.
24:17Investigators wonder when did things start to go wrong for the crew?
24:22How did the Albertina get too low?
24:25The transcript says your lights in sight overhead Ndola, descending.
24:31Roger. Report reaching 6,000.
24:35The radio conversation between the pilots and the controller clearly shows that the crew had the airport in sight from a safe altitude less than 10 minutes before hitting the ground.
24:46Your lights in sight overhead Ndola.
24:50So we know he's right here when he spots the airport at around 6,000 feet.
24:56But the transcript reveals something more. A single unexpected word.
25:02Descending.
25:04The Albertina was already descending when it flew past the airport.
25:09It's a crucial lead.
25:12He's continuing to shed altitude here and keeps descending until he hits the hill here at an altitude of 4,290 feet.
25:25For some reason the pilots began their descent much too early.
25:30It's unfathomable that there was any intention to be below 5,000 feet at that point in the approach.
25:39Investigators are at a loss to explain how the pilots ended up misjudging their altitudes so badly.
25:47Something threw them off.
25:49What?
25:51They consider the possibility that the crew was misled by an incorrect altimeter reading.
25:58Estimate of B Ndola at 2347. Arrival time 0020.
26:04Half an hour before he expects to land, Hullenquist makes contact with a tower in Ndola.
26:11Roger.
26:13Controllers give him an important piece of information.
26:16Set altimeter 230.15. Roger.
26:21Pilots need to calibrate their altimeters for every airport they land at, factoring in the runway's height above sea level.
26:29The settings of the barometric pressure around the airfield were provided by the tower,
26:36and that needed to be translated from millibars to inches and placed in the window, the little adjustment window of the altimeters.
26:47They examine the instruments, looking for any sign that the crew dialed in the wrong altimeter setting for Ndola.
26:54A set of numbers showing barometric pressure provides an answer.
26:59The investigators checked the three altimeters in the plane.
27:03They found that the altimeters were working at the time and correctly set.
27:10There was nothing wrong with the altimeters.
27:16It's another dead end.
27:18What do we focus on next?
27:19While crash investigators continue to search for answers, medical examiners make an astonishing discovery.
27:28It looks like some of the passengers suffered gunshot wounds.
27:32Finding bodies in the wreckage with bullet wounds is, of course, very interesting to look into.
27:39Perhaps there's a sinister cause to this accident.
27:43Investigators sift through dirt from the crash site where a critical UN peace mission ended in flames.
27:53They find more evidence of gunfire, shell casings and a total of 340 tons of explosives.
28:00They also find the remains of the plane.
28:02The plane ended in flames.
28:07They find more evidence of gunfire, shell casings and a total of 342 bullets recovered from the bodies of the victims or nearby.
28:19Were they fired on board the plane or from outside?
28:23Investigators need to know.
28:27Ballistics experts work to find the answer.
28:31When a bullet passes through the barrel of a gun, it spins.
28:36The spinning action marks the bullet with telltale marks called rifling.
28:43But ballistic testing reveals yet another surprise.
28:48None of the bullets have any signs of rifling.
28:52They were never fired from any gun.
28:55We've tested everyone.
28:57The persons who were wounded by the bullets also carried bullets because they were like guards.
29:05So they had ammunition on them.
29:09The investigation shows that the most likely cause of the wounds is that the bullets somehow exploded and went into the bodies.
29:21Rhodesian investigators conclude the bullets likely exploded in the heat of the post-crash fire and were propelled into nearby bodies.
29:34Without any evidence of sabotage or attack, nor any sign of a mechanical failure, the cause of the crash is looking more and more like pilot error.
29:46These guys are experienced. It's tough to see how they could have screwed this up.
29:52Could the crew have somehow been distracted in the final moments of flight?
30:00A discovery on day one of the investigation lends support to that idea.
30:07When rescuers searched the wreckage, they found evidence that a UN bodyguard was in the cockpit at the time of the crash.
30:16So this is the cockpit area and they found the security officer's body here.
30:23Of course the pilots are much longer till we land.
30:26A visitor in the cockpit can be dangerously distracting for a crew.
30:33Especially when they're close to the ground.
30:36We'll be on the ground in three minutes. It's a few minutes early. Flaps 30.
30:41Flaps 30.
30:42You have to pay attention to small movements on the instruments.
30:47You can have your guys standing by if you want.
30:49Your attention to detail, to the altitude, your altitude awareness needs to be extremely high.
30:55I'll stop short of the terminal. You can have the secretary general disembark there.
30:59The margins are very small. It's a matter of seconds before they hit the ground.
31:04For the Rhodesian investigators, the evidence is clear.
31:09The pilots simply lost track of their altitude and flew their plane into the ground.
31:16No sabotage. No missiles.
31:19The plane was in the air.
31:21The plane was in the air.
31:23The plane was in the air.
31:25The plane was in the air.
31:27The plane was in the air.
31:29The plane was in the air.
31:31No sabotage. No missiles. No murder.
31:38They go into the questions about sabotage and attacks,
31:43but they conclude that the most probable cause to the accident is some kind of pilot error.
31:51Those who believe this was an assassination aren't swayed by the official findings.
31:57It's a big thing when a secretary general of the United Nations dies in an aeroplane crash.
32:04A very big thing.
32:06Certain people believe it's just not possible that Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a common accident.
32:14It had to be something more.
32:17But three subsequent reports on the crash all agree.
32:21There's no evidence of an assassination.
32:23The Hammarskjöld file is closed.
32:29Then, in 2011, 50 years after the crash, stunning new claims come to light.
32:37Author Susan Williams interviews Charles Southall,
32:41a former US intelligence officer with an astounding story.
32:45Southall was working in a signals monitoring base in Cyprus the night Hammarskjöld's plane went down.
32:52I see the transport plane coming low.
32:55He claims he heard a remarkable recording.
32:58I'm going down to make a run on it.
33:01What could be the voice of a pilot launching an attack on the Albertina?
33:06Yes, it's the Transair DC-6.
33:08There is a possibility that there was an attack.
33:11Transair DC-6.
33:13There is a possibility that there was a listening station recording the radio transmissions and sending them to the NSA.
33:23I've hit it.
33:25There are flames. It's crashing.
33:29Is this proof of what really happened?
33:32Evidence of a cold-blooded assassination of the UN Secretary General?
33:41There's more to the NSA officer's intriguing story about the mysterious radio call on the night of the crash.
33:48I'm going down to make a run on it.
33:51He says the voice on the recording that night was not unknown.
33:56It was identified as a notorious Belgian pilot.
34:01A mercenary who flew Magister fighter planes for the rebel Katanga Air Force.
34:07The night that the plane was actually shot down, I was working a night shift.
34:13Paul Abram was also with the NSA at the time.
34:17Stationed on the island of Crete.
34:20He claims he heard a similar radio call.
34:23The NSA was telling us on a daily basis,
34:26these are the places that Hammerskjold will probably travel,
34:29these are the frequencies that the ground stations would be using,
34:33here is the tail number of his plane.
34:36The idea being that they wanted to know how close he was to signing a peace agreement,
34:42and for us to know exactly where he was going and what he was doing.
34:47I'm going down to make a run on it.
34:49On September 18th, 1961, the most important chatter came down to,
34:54we have the plane in sight.
34:57Yes, we've checked. It's the plane.
35:00I've hit it.
35:02It's going down.
35:04The shoot-down theory is given added weight when Williams reviews witness statements
35:09that the original investigation discounted as unreliable.
35:14They describe a second plane approaching the Secretary General's DC-6 at great speed,
35:20guns firing.
35:25Dag Hammerskjold was murdered. Period.
35:29He was shot down.
35:31Williams lays out her shocking theory in an eye-opening book called,
35:36Who Killed Hammerskjold?
35:38The book itself, I think wisely so, stopped short of a definite conclusion.
35:44All the book wanted to achieve, and it managed to achieve,
35:48is to say there are a lot of questions which are not yet sufficiently answered.
35:56The book's stunning claims lead to action.
36:00In 2013, Sven Hammerberg joins a new search for the truth,
36:06gathering evidence to be presented to the United Nations.
36:10My task was to look into the details and see if there were any new information available,
36:18and I was asked to evaluate the investigations that had been performed before.
36:24He's part of a special commission of inquiry.
36:28It includes a group of distinguished judges who travel to Ndola
36:33to meet witnesses from the night of the crash.
36:36Many repeat their claim that they saw two planes in the air over Ndola.
36:42I think most importantly, there are still eyewitnesses,
36:47and many of them seem to be very credible eyewitnesses,
36:50who were just ignored.
36:52Could the death of the UN Secretary General really be an assassination?
36:57Hammerberg digs deeper, trying to answer that question once and for all.
37:03When I look into the basic facts around the crash,
37:07I look at the trees and the crash site and the statements over radio and so on.
37:13Okay, now let's see the elevations.
37:16He studies the terrain around Ndola airport.
37:22He notes the height of the hills.
37:28He compares what he finds to what's shown on the chart used by the UN pilots.
37:39And he makes a shocking discovery.
37:47There's a hill here.
37:49A hill here.
37:51A hill here.
37:53There's nothing marked here.
37:58Here.
38:00Where the crash site is.
38:03The Ndola chart does not show any obstacle or higher ground west of the field.
38:10The local terrain includes hills west of Ndola that rise to over 4,300 feet.
38:18But they're missing from the chart.
38:22This hill could have blocked his view of the runway.
38:28The crew might have been unaware of the height west of the field,
38:32since there were no signs of it on the chart.
38:35Hammerberg also discovers that members of the crew flying the Secretary General to high-level peace talks
38:41had been on duty for 17 of the past 24 hours.
38:46That's a long day for these guys.
38:49Fatigue is an important factor here.
38:52The flight had lasted for six and a half hours.
38:55And there are signs that some of the crew were quite exhausted even before the flight.
39:02All right. Descending to 6,000, nil traffic ahead.
39:076,000, yes, sir.
39:09For Hammerberg, the clues are beginning to add up.
39:13He feels close to solving a 50-year-old aviation mystery
39:17that has generated heated controversy the world over.
39:27After carefully reviewing all the evidence,
39:29surrounding the crash of the Albertina in 1961,
39:33Sven Hammerberg believes he now knows what went wrong in the final three minutes of flight.
39:39And it has nothing to do with murder.
39:42Overhead and to the left.
39:45Descending.
39:47Reaching the airfield, you see the lights.
39:50When you have been flying for six and a half hours,
39:53I think it's very easy for a pilot to get thinking that,
39:55oh, we're here, we're just going to land.
39:58Passing the airport, the pilots descend below the minimum safe altitude of 5,000 feet.
40:054,500.
40:08As they turn back towards the runway,
40:13they suddenly lose sight of the runway lights.
40:18What the hell?
40:20You go down, you turn around,
40:23what the hell?
40:25You go into the dark, and then you completely miss your references.
40:30And that is a dangerous situation.
40:33I don't have the runway in sight.
40:35The pilots don't realise that a hill is blocking their view,
40:39because the hill isn't on their chart.
40:43Losing the visual sight of the airport
40:46would cause the pilots to look even further and lose more altitude.
40:52Before they even know they're in danger, it's too late.
41:03We're going down!
41:05We're going down! Brakes! Brakes!
41:14A fatigued crew, descending too soon,
41:18over hilly terrain that wasn't marked on their chart.
41:21Those factors combined to cause the fatal crash.
41:25I think that's all the ingredients of a controlled flight into terrain.
41:29They are there.
41:31We still have that issue in aviation today.
41:35Even with all the preclusive education and equipment that we have,
41:41there are still cases where we have a controlled flight into terrain.
41:46To finally put the issue to rest,
41:49there's one last piece of evidence that investigators want to see.
41:54NSA records from the night of the crash.
41:59They asked the NSA to release these documents,
42:05and the answer was that they remain classified as top secret
42:11and will not be released.
42:14Given my knowledge of the recordings, tape logs, facsimiles, etc.,
42:22that they have concerning this incident,
42:25I'm not the least surprised that they haven't been released.
42:29It's just in their nature.
42:33It's been more than 50 years since the mysterious crash in Andola.
42:38Without the NSA documents,
42:40doubts about the crash still linger.
42:43But efforts to uncover the truth continue.
42:46For me personally, the biggest reason that justifies all these efforts
42:52is that there are still family members, relatives, close colleagues
42:59who still live with the doubt.
43:03Though Hammarskjöld died before he could stop the fighting in Katanga,
43:07many believe his efforts prevented the conflict from raging out of control.
43:13If it wouldn't have been for Hammarskjöld's intervention in the Congo,
43:18it could have easily escalated into a third world war.
43:23Just a few months after his death,
43:26Dag Hammarskjöld became the first person to be honoured posthumously
43:31with the Nobel Peace Prize.
43:33We should remember Dag Hammarskjöld and the others
43:37as human beings who were willing to risk their lives
43:42on a dangerous mission to contribute to more peace on our earth.