Without sufficient income , the company was forced to cut its welfare services . Maintenance was cut to a minimum , and in 1995 the schools and kindergartens were closed and children and most wives returned to the mainland . Both towns became dominated by young men . The Arktikugol-chartered Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 crashed into Operafjellet On 29 August 1996 , killing all 141 people on board . All of the passengers were Arktikugol employees . On 18 September 1997 , twenty-three miners were killed in an explosion — the most fatal mining accident ever on Norwegian soil . In the first accident the Russians sent their own rescue crew and equipment and proposed a joint Norwegian-Russian investigation . This was rejected by the Governor . Following the 1997 accident the Governor led the investigation without questions from Arktikugol — a significant shift the relationship between the two countries
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801
Arktikugol