“The responsibility for the clearing up of the crash site ought to fall on the owners of the aircraft, in this case the Norwegian state,” the agency wrote in a letter to the ministry of Social Affairs according to newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN).
The aircraft went missing when it was on its way from Evenes in northern Norway to Kiruna in the far north of Sweden on March 15th.
At the time, the Hercules was participating in the Cold Response military training exercise taking place over northern Norway which was scheduled to run from March 12th to March 21st and included 16,000 soldiers from 15 countries.
Two days later, wreckage as well as body parts from the five deceased crew members, were found on the east and west sides of the Kebnekaise Massive at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres.
The salvage work has taken some time but the area is still in need of a clear-up from debris and other equipment.
Also, despite the fact that quite a large amount of aircraft fuel leaked out over the mountain area, the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) didn’t think that any acute environmental measures had to be taken to clean up the spill at the time.
And after speaking to the Norwegian Armed Forces the agency has concluded that the demand for a Norwegian sanitization project should be addressed to the Norwegian embassy in Stockholm, and needs to come from the Swedish government rather than one of its agencies.
“SFV therefore requests that the government propose to the Norwegian state that they take the necessary steps to sanitize the area of the crash site on Kebnekaise to the purpose of clearing the area of wreckage, equipment and potential environmental hazards,” the agency wrote.
TT/Rebecca Martin
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