BEIARN (Dagbladet):- This is a very narrow and steep valley. There are a lot of rocks and just a steep steep terrain where it’s hard to walk.

This is how 67-year-old Håkon Høyås describes the area in Gråtådalen where the American Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey plane crashed on Friday.

Høys was well known in the area and had traveled extensively in the valley where the victim now resides. He claimed that the valley had been used for military training several times before.

– The area has been widely used by the military to practice low-flying. In some places you can see the plane below you. They have come beneath us through the valley, before rising again with a bang where we stand now.

Lieutenant Colonel and head of communications in the Air Force, Stine Barclay Gaasland, confirmed to Dagbladet that the defense had been used for previous training.

– The Armed Forces use the area in and around Gråtådalen for training, including low-flying fighter jets. This is also a famous training area for our rescue helicopters.

Sent out

Beiarværingen didn’t want to say much about the incident itself on Friday.

– I’ve seen a lot of strange things fly around here a few times, but like I said, this is the area where they practice. At the same time, we don’t know what happened yet, perhaps due to a technical glitch. I don’t know what the cause is.

On Sunday evening, the head of the task force at the police, Kristian Karlsen, was able to inform that four soldiers who died in the plane crash had been evacuated. They were flown by helicopter to Bodo.

The crash inspector at the Accident Investigation Agency, Mats Torbjørnsson, was able to confirm at the same time that they had found the black box for the plane.

The so-called black box, which is actually orange and consists of a tachograph and voice recorder, collects information about the speed and altitude of the aircraft, as well as conversations between the crew. Thus they can provide information about what happened minutes before the accident.

Using snowshoes or skis

Work at the crash site has now been completed for the night. To enter the site, the crew must first ride a snowmobile for half an hour, before continuing on foot with skis or snowshoe. Helicopters were also used in the area after the weather improved.

– It is about one kilometer by foot. They had to use snowshoes or skis and that was very demanding.

Four Americans confirmed dead

Strong weather changes

According to Høyås, the weather was fine in Beiarn on Friday morning. It was only at night that it exploded.

– The weather changes quite a bit between 18 and 19. Then it explodes and the weather gets a lot worse in the afternoon and evening

Although the dead have now been taken, there is still a lot of work on the site.

It has not been clarified who will lead the investigation, but US authorities have signaled that they would like to lead further work.