sappers were transported to RAF Skitten, Killimster in Scotland, with the operation scheduled to commence two days later. On the evening of 19 November, Group Captain Cooper, with the aid of a Norwegian meteorologist and regular reports from the SOE agents stationed near the landing zone, decided that although the weather was not perfect, it would be best to launch the operation that night; Cooper believed that if it were delayed, the weather might deteriorate on subsequent days and prevent the operation from being conducted entirely. The first aircraft–glider combination took off from the airfield at 17:50, with the second following at 18:10; after circling the airfield several times the two combinations headed out across the North Sea towards their objective. The first combination The first combination flew through poor weather conditions and managed to reach Norway and fly towards its objective. During the flight over Norway the Rebecca receiver, which was supposed to pick up the transponder signal from the Eureka beacons being used by the Norwegian SOE agents, developed a mechanical problem and was unable to pick up the signal. This left the aircrew with only map-reading available to locate the landing zone, but the poor weather made this almost impossible. On a second attempt to find the correct area, the combination flew into thick clouds approximately northwest of Rjukan, and ice began to form on both aircraft and glider, as well as the towing rope connecting the two. At this point the combination began to lose altitude, and the towing rope snapped, setting the glider free; low on fuel, the aircraft was forced to turn back after signaling to Skitten at 23:55 that it had released the glider, and only just succeeded in landing back in Britain. Shortly after releasing the glider, the aircraft broadcast a second message, "Glider in sea", indicating the air crew's belief that the glider had crashed. The Royal Navy was asked to begin a search-and-rescue mission, but had no ships in the area; an aerial search of the area was instead conducted, but did not find the glider. The glider crash-landed in an area called Fyljesdal, overlooking Lysefjord. Of the seventeen men on board, three were killed outright. Thorvald Fylgjedalen, a local farmer, found some of the injured soldiers from the glider, but knew no English, and was unable to communicate with them. Nonetheless, Fylgjedalen and his neighbour Jonas Haaheller decided that