Bertrand Russell in Trondheim

Off the cost of Norway, on 2 October 1948, British philosopher a survived a very serious air disaster where 19 people died:

"The place was Trondheim. The weather was stormy and cold. We had to go by sea-plane from Oslo to Trondheim. When our plane touched down on the water it became obvious that something was amiss, but none of us in the plane knew what it was. We sat in the plane while it slowly sank. Small boats assembled round it and presently we were told to jump into the sea and swim to a boat – which all the people in my part of the plane did. We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in.

I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly, 'If I cannot smoke, I shall die'. Unexpectedly, this turned out to be true. All those in the smoking compartment got out by the emergency exit window beside which I was sitting. We all swam to the boats which dared not approach too near for fear of being sucked under as the plane sank. We were rowed to shore to a place some miles from Trondheim and thence I was taken in a car to my hotel.

Everybody showed me the utmost kindness and put me to bed while my clothes dried. A group of students even dried my matches one by one. Some amusement was caused when a clergyman supplied me with clerical clothing to wear till my clothes had dried. Everybody plied me with questions. A question even came by telephone from Copenhagen: a voice said, 'When you were in the water, did you not think of mysticism and logic?' 'No', I said. 'What did you think of?' the voice persisted. 'I thought the water was cold', I said and put down the receiver."

– Bertrand Russell The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967–1969), Ch. 14: Return to England, p. 511-12

The Bukken Bruse disaster was the crash of a flying boat during its landing on 2 October 1948. The Short Sandringham was on a Norwegian domestic flight from Oslo and was landing in the bay adjacent to Hommelvik near the city of Trondheim. The disaster killed 19 people; among the survivors was the philosopher Bertrand Russell. The 76-year-old philosopher Bertrand Russell was on the flight on his way to give a lecture to the local student society. He was seated at the rear of the smoking compartment. In an interview with Trondheim newspaper Adresseavisen the day after the crash, he said that he was uncertain of what was happening after the jerk until the aircraft tipped over and water rushed in. In his autobiography he wrote that he had made sure to get a seat in the smoking compartment before the flight, saying that "If I cannot smoke, I shall die". Russell was hospitalized in a Trondheim hospital.

Image: Bertrand Russell recovery at Trondheim hospital 3 October 1948. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) was a philosopher, mathematician, educational and sexual reformer, pacifist, prolific letter writer, author and columnist. Bertrand Russell was one of the most influential and widely known intellectual figures of the twentieth century. In 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his extensive contributions to world literature and for his "rationality and humanity, as a fearless champion of free speech and free thought in the West." Russell died at his home in Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales on February 2, 1970, where his ashes were scattered over the Welsh hills.