Disasters happen! A quick clay landslide occurred at Ask village, in Gjerdrum municipality, Norway. Police received the first reports at 03:56 on 2020-12-30. That was almost five years before this post’s publication. There were 14 buildings, with 31 residences, destroyed in the incident that killed eleven people (two of those deaths involved a pregnant woman), injured another ten, and left the village devastated.
This post looks generally at the technology used in search and rescue operations in Norway, using the Gjerdrum landslide as an example.
Reading the Wikipedia article about the landslide, one can find a list of the resources involved in rescue efforts. One of the first on the scene was a 14-person Urban Search and Rescue squad from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. Yes, the Swedes were able to get into place before many of the Norwegians. Thank you, Sweden. I read content from this agency, who send me regular updates. The agency provides information bulletins in Swedish, but they also have an English language website.
Ask is not an isolated location. It is 33.3 km (slightly over 20 miles) north-east of Norway’s capital, Oslo. It takes half-an hour to drive there from the centre of Oslo!
Notification
The Norwegian rescue service can be notified in several ways when people need urgent assistance. Unfortunately, instead of using a single emergency number, Norway has several numbers in use.
Fire = 110.
Police = 112.
Medical = 113.
Coastal radio (incidents at sea) = 120.
Direct telephone number to rescue centers: Northern Norway 75 55 90 00 / Southern Norway 51 51 70 00.
On our telephones, we have an app which helps us choose the correct number to call: Hjelp 113 app (Norwegian) and Help 113 app (English). These have all emergency numbers in one place, as well as other important numbers. It displays the telephone’s coordinates and the location of the nearest defibrillator in Norway at all times. The app is created by the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation and is under continuous development.
Procedures for use of Hjelp/ Help 113: Download or update the app from Apple Store or Google Play. Launch the app after downloading. Register the mobile number. Use it when one: 1) needs to call an emergency number, 2) requires a defibrillator, or 3) wants to know one’s geographic position = coordinates.
Usually, the position is sent to the emergency center with the Advanced Mobile Location (AML) system, which exists in almost all mobile phones. The Hjelp 113 app does the same. However, with the app, the phone user can see the coordinates. These can be read out to the emergency center if it has not received your position due to your foreign phone number. If phone coverage is not available at an incident site, one can take a screenshot of the coordinates where the patient is located and then go to an area with coverage. One can then read out the correct coordinates for where the patient is. Both Trish and I have this app on our phones.
Only the emergency number 112 can be called from a locked mobile phone and without a SIM card. Other emergency numbers are treated as regular phone numbers by the mobile phone.
The number 1412 is a text telephone service in Norway, specially adapted for the deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired. It makes it possible to communicate with the emergency services and other important agencies via text instead of voice.
You can send SMS to the emergency numbers 110 (fire), 112 (police) and 113 (ambulance). However, to use the service you must register in advance via nodsms.no.
Helicopters
On Christmas Day (2025-12-25) Alasdair and I watched series 2 episode 9 of Reddet = Saved, a Norwegian TV2 documentary series about the Norwegian Airforce helicopter rescue service. This episode, made in 2020, was about the Gjerdrum landslide, where this service rescued 13 people. The search and rescue (SAR) helicopter in use was a license-built variant of the Sikorsky S-61 with twin Rolls-Rolls Gnome turboshaft engines and different avionics, designated a Sea King, by its British manufacturer Westland Helicopters. The model designation is a misspelling of seeking.
The Norwegian government has decided to purchase 16 AW101 SAR Queen helicopters to replace their Westland Sea King rescue helicopters. The AW101 replaced the Sea King at Sola on 2020-09-01, at Ørland on 2021-05-14, at Banak on 2022-02-25, Bodø on 2022-12-12, at Rygge on 2023-12-11 and, finally, at Florø on 2024-09-27.
The need for the police to have advanced helicopters became clear after Anders Brevik (1979 – ) killed 77 people, including 8 in a bombing of the Norwegian Government’s offices in Oslo, and 69 at a Labour Party summer youth camp on Utøya island in Tyrifjorden, a lake. Of those killed, 33 were under 18 years of age. Utøya is about 38 km north-west of Oslo, by car and boat.
Back to the landslide. A police helicopter, viewing the landslide from a slightly different angle, was able to direct the rescue helicopter to locations where people needed rescuing. This police helicopter was a Leonardo AW169 with twin Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210A FADEC turboshaft engines that drive the main rotor with variable speed to reduce noise and increase its effectiveness. It is capable of carrying 10 people (including pilot and co-pilot). It was developed and produced by the Italian Leonardo.
With greater range and transport capacity, the AW169 has the largest cabin in its class, with space to transport six officers and equipment, and the largest sliding doors in its class (1.6 meters wide), which is an advantage if the helicopter is to be used as a support platform for snipers.
In the Reddet episode the last two people to be rescued narrated their experience. Their house was moved 400 m during the landslide.
During this incident, Andøya Space engaged in aerial surveillance and provided drone data to rescue coordinators. Norwegian Radio Relay League, the national association of amateur radio operators, was responsible for organizing signals and communication, including/ especially keeping track of the geographical position of all active searchers.
Drones
Local Norwegian fire and rescue departments increasingly use drones to assist in their activities. The standard drone is the DJI Matrice 300. These are designed for industrial applications, including surveying, inspection, search and rescue and firefighting. It has a folding design, with an IP45 protection rating, downward-facing motors, a 6-direction collision avoidance system, a D-RTK module provides high-precision navigation and positioning with centimeter-level accuracy using real-time differential corrections, to enhance the drone’s positioning capabilities. This allows it to be used for surveying and mapping applications where accuracy is critical. The model was released in 2020-07. An updated 350 version was released in 2023-05, and a 400 version was released in 2025-06.
General characteristics (300 model)
Capacity: 2 700 g (6.0 lb) payload.
Length: 0.810 m (2 ft 8 in) or 0.430 m (1 ft 4.9 in) folded.
Width: 0.670 m (2 ft 2 in) or 0.420 m (1 ft 4.5 in) folded.
Height: 0.430 m (1 ft 5 in).
Empty weight: 3.600 kg (8 lb) excluding battery
Max takeoff weight: 9.000 kg (20 lb)
Battery capacity: 52.8V 5935 mAh (274 Wh)
Powerplant: 4 × DJI 6009 brushless DC electric motor (downward-facing).
Propellers: 2-bladed DJI 2110, 0.53 m (1 ft 9 in) diameter.
Performance
Maximum speed: 82.8 km/h = 51.4 mph = 44.7 kn.
Endurance: 45 minutes with 700 g (1.5 lb).
Service ceiling: 5 000 m (16,000 ft).
Rate of climb: 6 m/s (1,200 ft/min).
Avionics
Camera: 960p FPV camera.
Gimbal compatibility: Zenmuse H20, H20N, H20T, L1, P1, XT S, XT2, Z30.
GNSS compatibility: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo.
Transmission system: OcuSync Enterprise
Barentswatch
BarentsWatch information portal was launched in 2012. It provides an overview of activity and knowledge in coastal and sea areas. The system covers sea and coastal areas from Denmark in the south, to Greenland in the west, the North Pole in the north and Novaja Semlja in the east.
The establishment of the BarentsWatch information system is based on cooperation between 27 Norwegian state agencies and research institutes. The system headquarters is in Tromsø, in Northern Norway. Kongsberg Spacetec provided system integration.
This service will provide all participants in Norwegian rescue service with a joint tool for coordinating their own efforts on an operational and tactical level. The overarching goal is to reduce loss of life and improve health by enhancing the quality and efficiency in executing search and rescue missions in Norway.
This tool is intended to facilitate a faster startup of a rescue operation and strengthen cooperation among the various public, private and volunteer players that constitute the Norwegian rescue service. The tool will contribute to a greater degree of shared situational understanding during search and rescue operations.
The request to create a shared support tool for the rescue service came from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) early in 2022, based on the notion to build upon the existing Shared Resources Information Repository (FRR) service. An operational expert group, representing key players in the Norwegian rescue service, contribute with professional understanding and continuous evaluation of the comprehensive solution during innovation and development. The group consists of representatives from the Police, the Police Academy, the Norwegian Red Cross, the Norwegian People’s Aid, the Norwegian Rescue Dogs, the Norwegian Radio Relay League and the Scouts’ Emergency Groups.
The map below shows use of the FRR service. The red dot at the centre of the concentric circles shows the last known position of a missing person. The first concentric circle is 300 m from that point, and represents the area where there is a 25% chance of finding that person. The second circle is 1 100 m from the centre, and there is another 25% chance of finding that person. I calculate that the third circle is about 2.5 km from the centre, and represents yet another 25% possibility. The final 25% chance of finding that person is beyond that third circle. Resources associated with the map include helicopters, boats, fire vehicles, ATVs, other motor vehicles, people and dogs.
Notes:
I studied applied physics at Andøya Space, under its previous names Andøya Space Centre and Andøya Rocket Range. Because of its remote location on an island in Northern Norway, all students had to fly in using the island’s military airport. At the space centre, comfortable accommodation was provided for all students attending, along with catered meals, and social activities in the evening.
I am a member of the Norwegian Radio Relay League.
Publication of this weblog post had been postponed. It was originally scheduled to be published on 2023-04-22 at 12:00.