destroyed and all occupants perished. It is the single deadliest plane crash to have occurred on Norwegian soil. Recovery The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Northern Norway received a message about the crash at 10:30 CEST (8:30 UTC) and the search-and-rescue service was immediately deployed. This included seven Norwegian aircraft that were in the area. The area had bad weather with a low cloud height, resulting in difficult searching conditions. The aircraft was found at 12:06 CEST at Operafjellet, east of Svalbard Airport. Most of the aircraft was located on the mountain's plateau, although some debris had slid down a vertical cliff and was scattered along the valley and partially covered by an avalanche. Rescue workers and medics from Longyearbyen Hospital arrived at 12:36, and quickly established that no one survived. The responsibility of the recovery was transferred to the governor of Svalbard on 30 August. In addition, police personnel from the mainland were transferred to Svalbard to work with the investigation and recovery. The work was supplemented by local volunteers. Because of the bad weather, which included fog and snow, transporting workers to the plateau was often impossible, so work started in the valley. Governor Ann-Kristin Olsen traveled to Barentsburg on 30 August to inform the communities about the accident, and distributed ample written information in Russian about the then-known details about the crash. Later in the day, a Russian aircraft arrived with Deputy Minister Aleksandr Petrovich of the Ministry of Emergency Situations along with a team of 11 rescue workers, and representatives from the Interstate Aviation Committee, the Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow, the Federal Air Transport Agency, and Vnukovo Airlines. In a meeting that evening, Olsen accepted Russian assistance, while international agreement confirmed that the investigation would be led by the Norwegian authorities. On 31 August, Grete Faremo, the Norwegian minister of justice visited the Russian settlements as a representative from the government of Norway. The accident had a large impact on the community, with only 1,600 people living in the two Russian settlements at the time. The population in the communities did not speak Norwegian, and did not have a road connection to Longyearbyen. This made it difficult for Olsen to give accurate and detailed information. Issues were further complicated by erroneous reports in Russian media that there were five survivors. The governor's cabin in Barentsburg was manned during the aftermath, and bulletins were distributed with