Widerøe Flight 710

Widerøe Flight 710

A sister Dash 7 aircraft at Hammerfest Airport in 1987
Accident summary
Date	6 May 1988
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Torghatten, Brønnøy, Norway 65°24′N 012°05′E / 65.400°N 12.083°E / 65.400; 12.083Coordinates: 65°24′N 012°05′E / 65.400°N 12.083°E / 65.400; 12.083
Passengers	33
Crew	3
Fatalities	36 (all)
Injuries (non-fatal)	0
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	de Havilland Canada Dash 7
Operator	Widerøe
Registration	LN-WFN
Flight origin	Trondheim Airport, Værnes
Last stopover	Namsos Airport, Høknesøra
Destination	Bodø Airport via Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy and Sandnessjøen Airport, Stokka

Widerøe Flight 710, commonly known as the Torghatten Accident (Norwegian: Torghatten-ulykken), was a controlled flight into terrain into the mountain of Torghatten in Brønnøy, Norway. The Widerøe-operated de Havilland Canada Dash 7 crashed on 6 May 1988 at 20:29:30 during approach to Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy. All thirty-six people on board LN-WFN were killed; the crash remains the deadliest accident of the Dash 7 and in Northern Norway. The direct cause of the accident was that the aircraft had descended from 500 meters to 170 meters (1,500–550 ft) at 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi) instead of 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) from the airport.

An investigation found several shortcomings in the airline's operating procedures, in particular lack of proper cockpit communication and mutual control of the descent and approach plans. This was in part caused by the airline electing to not follow the Sterile Cockpit Rule and that a passenger was sitting in a cockpit jump seat during the flight. The investigating commission also found lack of proper pilot training in the airline. Flight 710 was the second of four Widerøe accidents between 1982 and 1993, all of which revealed shortcomings in the airline's operations and internal control.

The accident aircraft was a four-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 Series 102, with serial number 28, built in 1980. It was bought used by Widerøe in 1985 and registered as LN-WFN on 8 November 1985. Its certificate of airworthiness was last renewed on 4 November 1987 and was valid until 30 November 1988. The aircraft had operated 16,934 hours and 32,347 cycles prior to its last flight. The last A-check took place on 15 April 1988, after which the aircraft had flown 147 hours and 30 cycles. The 58-year-old captain held a D-certificate issued 8 April 1981 and was last renewed on 11 December 1987. He took his initial license in 1949 and had worked as a pilot in Widerøe since 1 April 1960. At the time of his last renewal, he had flown 19,886 hours, of which 2,849 hours were with the Dash 7. He had completed periodical flight training with the Dash 7 on 8 March 1988. He had just come home from a six-week vacation in Spain.