October 26, 1999
Web posted at: 3:31 p.m. EDT (1931 GMT)

OSLO, Norway -- The Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten said on Tuesday that a Learjet 35, flying from Vienna to Hamburg in 1983, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean under circumstances similar to the accident Monday that claimed the lives of golfer Payne Stewart and five other people in the United States.

The paper, which published a story about the accident at the time, recalled the incident in a report in Tuesday's editions.

Aftenposten reported that soon after the plane left the Austrian capital on May 18, 1983, all contact with it abruptly ended, but it continued flying at about 40,000 feet over northern Europe. The three people aboard the plane were killed.

When the plane passed the coast of the Netherlands heading for Scotland, two British fighter jets made visual contact with the craft. They flew close, but could not see any signs of life aboard the plane or any damage.

The Learjet continued flying over the Atlantic. It was followed on radar, but not far enough to establish where it crashed into the ocean somewhere between Scotland and Iceland.

At the time, there were theories that the pilot had somehow become paralyzed, and that the plane continued on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

Morten Overbye of CNN Norge contributed to this report.

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