| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| 1986 Ljósufjöll air crash | |
| Image Upright: | 1.16 |
| Date: | 5 April 1986 |
| Type: | Downdraft during landing |
| Site: | Ljósufjöll, Iceland |
| Coordinates: | 64.927°N -22.57°W |
| Plane1 Caption: | A Piper PA-23-250 Aztec, similar to the one that crashed. |
| Aircraft Type: | Piper PA-23-250 Aztec |
| Plane1 Tailnum: | TF-ORM |
| Plane1 Origin: | Ísafjörður Airport, Iceland |
| Plane1 Destination: | Reykjavík Airport, Iceland |
| Plane1 Passengers: | 6 |
| Plane1 Crew: | 1 |
| Plane1 Fatalities: | 5 |
| Plane1 Injuries: | 2 |
The 1986 Ljósufjöll air crash was a plane crash that happened on 5 April 1986 at 13:26 when a Piper PA-23-250 Aztec plane from Flugfélagið Ernir, TF-ORM, crashed in Ljósufjöll in Snæfellsnes, Iceland.[1] [2] [3] The aircraft was on a charter flight from Ísafjörður to Reykjavík and carried six passengers, including a couple with an 11-month-old child, and a pilot. It was believed that the plane landed in a downdraft and crashed into the slopes of Ljósufjöll, south of Sóleyjardalur.[4] It remains one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Iceland's history[5] [6] and resulted in changes to aviation regulations and procedures to increase the flow of up-to-date weather information to pilots.
The wreckage of the plane was found on the northern slopes of Ljósufjöll, at an altitude of, just before midnight the same day. Men from the Air Rescue Squad in Reykjavík were the first to arrive at the scene of the accident and there were three passengers alive in the wreckage, but one passenger died in a snowmobile on the way down the mountain.[7] [8]
An investigation by the Air Accident Committee and the Civil Aviation Administration concluded that the plane likely landed in a downdraft resulting in it crashing into the slopes of Ljósufjöll. It also concluded that a large part of the cause was due to the pilots lack of access to current weather information in the area.[9]
The accident and investigation resulted in changes on aviation regulations and procedures to increase the flow of up-to-date weather information between pilots and the Icelandic Meteorological Office. It also led to an overhaul of how air operators' logbooks, brochures and other educational material published by the Civil Aviation Administration are used in pilot training and retraining, e.g. in pilots aptitude test.[10]
Three days after the crash, a survivor who lost his wife and child in the crash, told his story in an interview with Morgunblaðið.[11] The interview caused a considerable backlash towards the newspaper and doctors at Borgarspítalinn.[12] [13]
The aftermath of the accident also caused a controversy in Iceland due to the governments regulations regarding passenger compensations for plane accidents which was 47-times lower than passengers in an automobile accident could receive.[14]
In 2020, RÚV featured the accident in a three-part radio series.[15]
In 2011, the accident was featured in the book Útkall - Ofviðri í Ljósufjöllum, part of the Útkall book series by Óttar Sveinsson.[16] In 2022, the story from the book was featured in the sixth episode of the docuseries Útkall on the television channel Hringbraut.[17] [18]