The Secretary-General has transmitted to the President of the General Assembly the latest report concerning the investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the death of the former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, a UN spokesperson said.
Speaking to reporters today (4 Nov) in New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the Secretary-General’s letter to the President of the General Assembly is accompanied by Mohamed Chande Othman, the Eminent Person’s report and is publicly available as General Assembly document.
The Secretary-General is encouraged that, in the years following the reopening of the investigation by the General Assembly in 2014, significant advancements in the body of knowledge have been made, Dujarric said.
He added that the Secretary-General is also encouraged by the assessment of the Eminent Person that significant advancements continue to have been made under his recent mandate, “including in relation to the possible involvement of mercenary pilots or other agents in a deliberate act against the flight carrying Dag Hammarskjöld, the possible type of aircraft used in any such act, the presence and role of foreign actors, information relating to search and rescue, and expert aviation analysis.”
The Secretary-General noted the Eminent Person’s assessment remains plausible that an “external attack or threat was a cause of the crash. The alternative feasible hypotheses are sabotage and unintentional human error.”
The Secretary-General noted the Eminent Person’s assessment that “it is almost certain that material information exists that has not been disclosed by Member States and calls on all Member States to provide relevant information and to ensure comprehensive access to their archives, 65 years after the crash.
Dujarric also said that the Secretary-General supports the Eminent Person’s recommendation that the United Nations appoint an independent person to continue the work undertaken pursuant to the most recent mandate of the Eminent Person, which concluded at the end of the eightieth session of the General Assembly back in September.
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Who’s Hiding Secrets About Dag Hammarskjöld’s Death?
The U.N. leader died in a plane crash in 1961. Many suspect foul play, but a lot of information still remains secret.
By Amelia Nierenberg, Christina Anderson and Lynsey Chutel
Reporting from London and Stockholm
Nov. 6, 2026 Updated 4:12 a.m. ET
For a long time, the 1961 plane crash that killed the U.N. secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld has been a mystery: a nighttime catastrophe in Cold War Africa, unexplained and unexplainable.
In recent years, United Nations investigators have pushed for answers: What really happened to Mr. Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomatic titan who led the United Nations through Cold War rivalries and decolonization? Was it a tragedy? Or an assassination?
“We deserve answers,” Caroline Hammarskjöld, the diplomat’s great-niece, said in an interview. “If it was an attack, then we have the right to know.”
A much-anticipated report released by the United Nations this week said it provided no definitive answers because the lead investigator was “almost certain” that the United States, Britain and South Africa had not disclosed all their documents related to the case.
The State Department said in a statement to The New York Times that the United States had “cooperated extensively with this investigation, including by sharing thousands of pages of declassified documents.”
The British government declined to comment, and the South African government did not immediately respond.
The U.N. has vowed to keep pushing. In a preface to the report, António Guterres, the current secretary general, said, “We owe this to the life and legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld and to the members of the party accompanying him.”
A Dangerous Mission
Late on Sept. 17, 1961, Mr. Hammarskjöld was traveling across southern Africa to broker an end to separatist fighting in Katanga, a mineral-rich province in the newly independent Congo.
It was a pivotal period for the continent as countries teetered between colonial rule and independence. Mr. Hammarskjöld, then 56, was a fierce advocate of Africa’s liberation (and would become the only person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously).
He knew his mission was dangerous. The United States was covertly supporting different factions within Congo, and Patrice Lumumba, one of Congo’s most charismatic political figures, had been killed by Congolese forces aligned with Belgium and the United States earlier that year.
As Mr. Hammarskjöld’s plane skirted Congolese territory, it observed near-total radio silence. Moments before it was set to land in Ndola, a city in today’s Zambia, it crashed.
A ‘Direct Attack’?
The colonial authorities initially blamed pilot error. But newer evidence suggests foul play.
Mohamed Chande Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania, has led the U.N. investigation into the crash for over a decade.
Mr. Othman, who declined to comment on the report released this week, wrote that both the United States and Britain knew of Mr. Hammarskjöld’s itinerary, as did people in the area, suggesting that an attack could have been planned.
Officials at the site of the crash in 1961.Credit…Central Press/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images
Many witnesses saw two planes that night. According to the report, they said the other plane might have fired at Mr. Hammarskjöld’s. Several people recalled “a flash or light in the sky, or fire before impact.”
Mr. Othman noted that although 15 people on board died instantly, one passenger survived for a few more days, telling doctors that there had been an explosion aboard, followed by smaller explosions that forced the plane down.
The report refers to testimony from Charles Southall, a former American naval officer, who was monitoring radio traffic in Africa at the time. He has said he heard a radio transmission from a Belgian mercenary pilot the night Mr. Hammarskjöld’s plane went down.
“You could hear the gun cannon firing rat-tat-tat,” Mr. Southall told documentary filmmakers, “and he said, ‘I’ve hit it. There are flames coming out of it.’”
A Multinational Cover-Up?
The U.N. report suggests that the United States, Britain and South Africa hid the truth and are still doing so a lifetime later.
Colonial officials appear to have steered the investigation away from foul play, and suppressed the testimony of the surviving passenger at the time.
Susan Williams, whose 2011 book “Who Killed Hammarskjöld?” kick-started the U.N. reports, said the case had “the appearance of a cover-up.”
This week’s 83-page document was the sixth U.N. report on the crash since it reopened the investigation in 2014. Mr. Othman said his repeated requests for more information from the United States and Britain had been denied, while a South African process had sputtered and died.
“The lack of full disclosure remains the primary obstacle,” he said.
‘That Final Piece’
Even if the answers are hidden inside the stubbornly sealed archives of some of Sweden’s closest allies, investigators say the inquest must continue. The point is to send a message, said Jan Eliasson, a former U.N. deputy secretary general: “The truth must take priority.”
Hans Kristian Simensen, a leading independent researcher, wants the Swedish government to open its own truth commission. He suspects foul play.
Image
Delegates at the U.N. General Assembly observed a minute of silence in memory of Mr. Hammarskjöld in 1961.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“It could also be pilot error,” he said. “But maybe a relevant question, then, is: Why are they still keeping classified documents if it was an ordinary air crash?”
Among those killed in the crash was Stig Olof Hjelte, a Swedish soldier, at age 21.
His brother Ingemar Hjelte has taken up the quest. The question for Mr. Hjelte, now 81, is not whether there was foul play. He’s certain of that. Instead, he wants “to know who gave the orders.”
“We still haven’t found that final piece of the puzzle,” he said: “the truth.”
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from London, and Zimasa Matiwane from Johannesburg.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Read more at The New York Times
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