Braathens SAFE Flight 139 was a Fokker F28, carrying 116 passengers and 5 crew from Trondheim to Oslo. As it began its descent to Fornebu Airport, a 24-year-old Norwegian man named Stein Arvid Huseby stood up. He claimed to have a bomb. His demand was specific: he wanted to speak directly with Prime Minister Kåre Willoch and the Minister of Justice, Mona Røkke. He also asked for the press. The pilots landed the aircraft at 1:17 PM. It taxied to a remote part of the tarmac. For over three hours, negotiators communicated via the plane’s interphone system. Huseby released all the passengers and two flight attendants in small groups.
The operation was a model of Scandinavian restraint. Police snipers took positions but were not used. The hijacker’s ‘bomb’ was later found to be a fake, a cylinder wrapped in wires. At 4:45 PM, with only the cockpit crew and Huseby remaining on board, a team from the Norwegian police special forces, Delta, stormed the aircraft. They entered through the rear door and the cockpit emergency hatch. They subdued Huseby without firing a shot. The entire crew was unharmed. The hijacker was arrested and later sentenced to eight years in prison.
This event is obscure because it was a textbook resolution. It lacked the drama of a shootout or the tragedy of casualties. It was a procedural success. The authorities prioritized patient negotiation over immediate confrontation. They met the hijacker’s demand for media contact by allowing a television crew to film from a safe distance, which may have helped placate him. The response was calibrated to de-escalate.
The hijacking had a minor but tangible legacy. It tested Norway’s crisis protocols for a new era of domestic terrorism and airline security. The calm, negotiated outcome reinforced a particular national approach to crisis management. It also remained a curious footnote in aviation history—a hijacking where the primary weapon was a request for a meeting, and the only injuries were to the perpetrator’s pride.