Mr. Hammarskjöld served as Secretary-General from April 1953 until his death aged 56, when the chartered Douglas DC6 aircraft he was travelling in with others, registered as SE-BDY, crashed shortly after midnight on 17-18 September 1961, near Ndola, then in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

He was en route to negotiate a ceasefire between UN peacekeepers and separatists from the breakaway Congolese region of Katanga, and possibly even a peace agreement encompassing the whole of newly independent Congo.

The Life and Death of Dag Hammarskjöld

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Fourteen of the 15 passengers died on impact, and the sole survivor succumbed to their injuries a few days later.

An initial inquiry by Rhodesian authorities reportedly attributed the crash to pilot error but the finding was disputed.

Eyewitness accounts suggested several scenarios, that “more than one aircraft” – possibly a jet – was observed in the air, “SE-BDY was on fire before it crashed”, and/or “SE-BDY was fired upon or otherwise actively engaged” by another aircraft.

General Assembly action

Over the years, the UN General Assembly has mandated a series of inquiries into the death of Mr. Hammarskjöld and those of his party. The most recent, in December 2022, was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, former Chief Justice of Tanzania, with the formal title of “Eminent Person”.

Mr. Othman also led several previous investigations into the fateful crash and the events surrounding it.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres transmitted Mr. Othman’s latest report to the Assembly.