Thor Kristen Tjøntveit (28 July 1936 – 3 March 2017) was a Norwegian-American aviator.
Tjøntveit grew up at Hesthagen in Grimstad, Norway. After taking his pilot's license, he moved to the United States in 1961; he became an American citizen in 1965. In 1967, he crashed in Yukon as was missing for ten days before being found. He was also the first person to fly over both the North Pole and the South Pole in the same trip. [1]
In the US, Tjøntveit operated a retailer of general aviation aircraft. He established the charter airline Trans Polar in 1970, which went bankrupt the following year. At the time the 33-million Norwegian krone bankruptcy was the largest in the country's history. Tjøntveit was charged, but acquitted of charges of deceit in the airline. [1] In 1972 Tjøntveit established Norwegian Overseas Airways, [2] which never received operating permit in Norway and therefore moved its operations to Bangladesh. [3]
Tjøntveit was sentenced for gross fraud against an insurance company in 1987. He was indicted in 2003 in the largest value added tax fraud in Norwegian history, but fled the country. Upon his return in 2005, he was sentenced and remained in prison until 2012. [1] He died on 3 March 2017. [4]
Svalbard, also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed in size by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The largest settlement is Longyearbyen.
Verdens Gang, generally known under the abbreviation VG, is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. VG is nevertheless the most read online newspaper in Norway, with about 2 million daily readers.
Sun Country Airlines is an American ultra-low-cost passenger and cargo airline, and the eleventh largest in the US by passengers carried. Based at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport with headquarters on airport property, Sun Country operates more than 120 passenger routes between 94 destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The airline has focus city operations at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport. On the cargo side, Sun Country is a contract cargo operator for Amazon Air.
Bernt Balchen was a Norwegian pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. A Norwegian native, he later became an American citizen and was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Busy Bee was an airline which operated in Norway between 1966 and 1992. Entirely based around wet lease, it conducted a mix of regional services for larger airlines and the military, as well as corporate, ad hoc and inclusive tour charters.
Stortinget is an underground rapid transit station on the Common Line of the Oslo Metro, Norway. It is located in the heart of the city center, next to the Parliament of Norway Building (Stortinget). The station is served by all of the five lines of the metro. At the street level, the station serves tram routes 11, 12, 13, 17, 18 and 19. Lines 11, 12 and 13 serves Øvre Slottsgate on the Vika Line while Lines 17, 18 and 19 stops at Tinghuset in the Ullevål Hageby Line. Also close to the station, there is a stop named Prof. Aschehougs gate that stops line FB5 to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. Stortinget is 'kilometer marker zero' for the metro network and is owned by Sporveien T-banen.
Inge Ryan is a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party. From 2009 to 2017, he was County Governor of Nord-Trøndelag. Ryan was mayor of Namsskogan from 1991 to 1995, and was a member of the Parliament of Norway from 2001 to 2009, the last four years as his party's parliamentary leader.
Partnair A/S was a Norwegian charter airline which operated from 1971 to 1989. During the later 1980s it was Norway's fifth-largest airline by revenue, operating a fleet of three Convair CV-580 and six Beechcraft Super King Air. The airline was based at Oslo Airport, Fornebu, as well as operating a base at Stavanger Airport, Sola.
Braathen SAFE Flight 239, also known as the Asker Accident, was a controlled flight into terrain of a Fokker F28 Fellowship into Vestmarka in Asker, Norway, on 23 December 1972 at 16:33. The Braathens SAFE aircraft was en route on a scheduled flight from Ålesund Airport, Vigra and crashed during approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Forty of the forty-five people on board the aircraft died, making it the deadliest civil aviation accident in Norway until Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 in 1996. According to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on 23 December 1992, a Danish citizen died of late complications in 1976.
Notodden Airport is a municipal regional airport at Heddal in Notodden, a municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The airport is mostly used for general aviation, and has extensive sailplane activity. In 2011, the airport had 5,078 aircraft movements and 3,423 passengers. The airport has a single 1,393-by-40-meter runway with flight information service and instrument landing system. In connection with the airport is a water aerodrome, which uses the lake of Heddalsvatnet for take-off and landing.
Fjellfly was a Norwegian airline which operated between 1954 and 1972. The airline was based at Skien Airport, Geiteryggen and served a diverse range of general aviation activities and a limited scheduled services. Major undertakings included distribution of the newspaper Dagbladet, flying tourists into mountainous areas such as Hardangervidda and crop dusted forest areas. A scheduled service was introduced from Skien to Oslo Airport, Fornebu in 1963, and was extended to Sandefjord Airport, Torp and Hamar Airport, Stafsberg four years later. At its peak in 1965, the airline had a fleet of fourteen aircraft.
A polar route is an aircraft route across the uninhabited polar ice cap regions. The term "polar route" was originally applied to great circle navigation routes between Europe and the west coast of North America in the 1950s.
Widerøe Flight 744, also known as the Namsos Accident, was a controlled flight into terrain of a de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter during approach to Namsos Airport, Høknesøra in Norway. The incident occurred on 27 October 1993 at 19:16:48 and killed six of the nineteen people on board, including the crew of two. The scheduled flight was en route between Trondheim Airport, Værnes via Namsos to Rørvik Airport, Ryum and the aircraft crashed at Berg in Overhalla because it held too low an altitude.
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347 was a scheduled domestic flight which, on 3 November 1994, was hijacked shortly after take-off. The flight, from Bardufoss Airport via Bodø Airport to Oslo Airport, Fornebu in Norway, was operated by a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 belonging to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). The hijacker was Haris Keč, a Bosnian living in Norway, who made demands that Norwegian authorities help to stop the humanitarian suffering in his home country caused by the Bosnian War. No one was injured in the incident.
Mey-Air Transport A/S, trading as Mey-Air, was a Norwegian charter airline which operated from 1970 to 1974. Owned by shipping owner Hans Otto Meyer, the company flew both smaller ad hoc charter as well as inclusive tour (IT). Initially operating a varied fleet of ten Cessna, Beechcraft, Convair CV-240 and NAMC YS-11, these were largely sold in 1972 to make way for two Boeing 737-200. The company filed for bankruptcy following the demise of the charter market after the 1973 oil crisis.
Norsk Forurensningskontroll AS or NFK was a specialized Norwegian aviation company and aircraft operator, with a fleet of four de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. The company was founded in 1983 and initially intended to operate the aircraft to apply dispersants on oil spills at sea, as a part of the national oil spill defense system. However, due to oil companies, departemental and government politics the company failed to establish such a service and instead operated the aircraft for charter, before deciding to liquidate the company in the autumn of 1986. The airline had its main base at Bodø Airport, and was planning to establish oil-spill protection bases at Hammerfest Airport and Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget. During its existence the company co-operated closely with Widerøe, which was approved by the authorities as the operators maintenance organization.
Trans Polar A/S was a Norwegian charter airline which operated between June 1970 and May 1971. The airline operated a fleet of three Boeing 720s and had a close cooperation with Aer Lingus for maintenance. Trans Polar was established by Thor Tjøntveit, although he never held any management positions. The airline was headquartered in Oslo, although most of the flights operated out of Copenhagen, Denmark, which was the base of Spies Rejser, Trans Polar's largest customer. The airline held operating permission from Norway and Denmark, but not Sweden; nevertheless, they operated several illegal flights out of Stockholm.
Agderfly AS was a flight school and airline based in Kristiansand, Norway, which operated from 1966 to 2004. Originally based in Froland, since 1969 it operated out of Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik. Agderfly was owned by Ola Rustenberg, who was also chief instructor. From 1989 to 1992 the company was split into three, with one part responsible for scheduled services. It operated two Dornier 228 and flew services from Kristiansand to Gothenburg, Billund and Bremen.
Arctic Air AS was a Norwegian airline which operated between 1996 and 2003. From 2000 to 2003 it built up a network of scheduled services, in part based on public service obligation (PSO) contracts, flying with two Dornier 228. The company was based in Alta.
Geir Eriksen, former names Geir Selvik and Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, is a Norwegian con artist and convicted felon. He formerly worked as a private investigator for criminal clients, and became known for fabricating material in the Arne Treholt case; it was subsequently revealed that he had engaged in similar fraud in a large number of other cases. He was charged with aggravated fraud and forgery; he pled guilty to all charges and in 2018 was sentenced to three years in prison and to pay 7 million kr in restitution. As of 2021 Malthe-Sørenssen was an inmate at Romerike Prison. He has changed his names several times, but is best known under the name Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, his legal name from 2010 to 2017. In 2021 his former wife Ida Marie Hansen published the book Jeg var gift med en bedrager about the Malthe-Sørenssen case.