The accident was the 333 Squadron 's third fatal accident with the Catalinas . It was the first aviation accident in Svalbard and remained the deadliest aviation accident of a civilian nature in the territory until Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 in 1996 , which killed 141 people . The air force continued on the postal service until 1959 . By then a winter airport had been built in Adventdalen outside Longyearbyen and Braathens SAFE took over the postal flights . A memorial plaque with a part of the aircraft 's propeller was erected at the station at Bjørnøya on 1 November 1984 . The 333 Squadron commemorated the accident on its 50th anniversary in 2004 by flying two Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft over Bjørnøya and dropping flowers over the site . The wreckage has never been cleaned up and is still located at the crash site
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801
1954 Bjørnøya Consolidated PBY Catalina crash