[The airplane accident in Torghatten on May 6, 1988]

On May 6th, 1988, a Dash 7 airplane crashed into the mountain of Torghatten, near Brønnøy-sund in northern Norway. All 33 passengers and the three crew members were killed. The National Identification Commission, including a forensic dentist, was at the disaster site twelve hours later. A dentist and a forensic pathologist worked with the police at the site until all the victims had been found. Three other dentists were responsible for collecting antemortem material and for the postmortem examination of all victims. 32 of the victims, or 89%, could be identified by dental means alone; a higher percentage than ever before reported. The final meeting of the Identification Commission took place five days after the disaster. All the victims were identified on the basis of technical, medical, and dental evidence, and the report signed by each of the three specialist groups. The quality of the dental records was evaluated with respect to requirements set up by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1983. Dental records had improved since the "Alexander Kielland" disaster in 1980. However, only five of the missing persons had full mouth intraoral radiography, only nine records met the requirements for general information about the patient (birth date and identification number, home and business address, etc), only three had information about earlier diseases, and none had recorded previous dental restorations. Diagnoses were given only for nine persons. The records showed that 21 of the victims had not received any prophylactic treatment.