Remember the Fallen

Moments before being installed as Secretary-General, Hammarskj枚ld (left) with Ambassador Bokhari of Pakistan.

In the library of his New York City apartment in 1954.

Inspecting the Brazilian Battalion of the 缅北禁地Emergency Force in Rafah, Gaza, in 1958.

In Moscow in 1956 with Under-Secretary-General Ilya S. Tchernychev.

Being welcomed at airport in Vientiane, Laos in 1959.

Taking photographs in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in 1958.

Field at Ndola, Zambia, where his plane crashed on 18 September 1961.

His funeral in Uppsala, Sweden, 29 September 1961.

Acting Secretary-General U Thant lays a wreath at Hammarskj枚ld鈥檚 grave in 1962.

Hammarskj枚ld鈥檚 portrait is unveiled at 缅北禁地Headquarters in 1966.

50th Anniversary of the Death of Dag Hammarskj枚ld

On 18 September 1961, Dag Hammarskj枚ld, Secretary-General of the United Nations, died in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, along with 15 others.

On 13 September 2011, there was a commemoration at 缅北禁地Headquarters. On 18 September 2011, Ambassador Jan Eliasson, President of the 60th session of the 缅北禁地General Assembly, delivered the in Uppsala, Sweden.

The UN's second Secretary-General perished in a fatal plane crash while on a peace mission to the Congo. Dag Hammarskj枚ld was on his fourth trip to the country, overseeing the operations of the United Nations Force in the Congo (ONUC), established in July 1960 in response to an urgent request from the Congolese government for 缅北禁地military assistance.

The aircraft carrying the Secretary-General and his party took off on a 200-kilometre flight the evening of 17 September, but never arrived at its destination, or communicated with the control tower at Ndola airport. A great flash in the sky was reported to have been sighted in the early morning hours of the 18th over Rhodesian territory (today Zambia), a few miles away from the airport. A search party found the wreck of the airplane in the early afternoon and recovered 15 bodies and one survivor, Harold Julien, who died several days later of the burns he sustained.

Andrew Cordier, Chief of Staff at the time, said in a tribute to Secretary-General Dag Hammarskj枚ld in September 1961: "Let us not be ashamed to shed some tears over our loss, nor shrink from reflection of the void that has been created for us and the world, but let this be a part of our rededication to the task which he so nobly advanced. ... Our greatest tribute to him will be our continuing individual and collective efforts, by following his glorious example, to strengthen the edifice of peace.鈥�

The Fallen

Dag Hammarskj枚ld (Sweden) Secretary-General
Heinrich A. Wieschhoff (United States) Director of Department of Political and Security Council Affairs
Vladimir Fabry (Czechoslovakia) Legal Adviser with the United Nations mission in the Congo (ONUC)
William Ranallo (United States) Personal aide to the Secretary-General
Alice Lalande (Canada) Secretary to the head of the United Nations mission in the Congo (ONUC)
Harold M. Julien (United States) Acting Chief Security officer (ONUC)
Serge L. Barrau (France) Security officer (ONUC)
Francis Eivers (Ireland) Investigator (ONUC)

Swedish Air Crew:

Captain Per Hallonquist
Captain Nils-Eric Aahréus
2nd Pilot Lars Litton
Flight Engineer Nils Goran Wilhelmsson
Air Purser Harald Noork
Radio Operator Karl Erik Rosén

Soldiers of the Swedish 11th Infantry Battalion:

Warrant Officer S.O. Hjelte
Private P.E. Persson

Resources

A/71/1042 (5 September 2017)
Biography of Dag Hammarskj枚ld
Dag Hammarskj枚ld awarded Nobel Peace Prize

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