Sombre mood on Arctic island after plane crash .
Rolf Soderlind
LONGYEAR , Norway 1996-08-30
The windblown , chilly streets of this tiny Arctic town are all but deserted and flags are flying at half-mast beneath a brooding , clouded sky .
Longyear is a town in mourning , a close-knit community that has been shattered .
Disaster struck on Thursday when a Russian airliner bringing coal miners to work crashed as it came in to land at the airport , killing all 141 people on board .
" It 's a sight I will never forget .
I will remember it for the rest of my life , " said Stig Onarheim .
He was one of a handful of rescuers who raced to the scene of the crash in a helicopter on Thursday , hoping in vain to find survivors .
The plane smashed into a snow-capped mountain on the Arctic island of Spitzbergen on Thursday , just east of Longyear .
" Imagine a big plane with a lot of luggage and people on board .
Think of all that mixed together , with twisted , wrecked parts on the slope , " Onarheim , 29 , told Reuters .
Police and local officials have sealed off the crash site , protecting it from intrusive reporters and from the polar bears that roam freely across the icy expanses .
The dead were all Russians and Ukrainians , coming to work in the mining towns of Barentsburg and Pyramiden .
Longyear is a Norwegian settlement of just over 1,000 people , but it also feels the loss keenly .
" I have trouble finding the words to express my grief .
It 's a tragedy for everyone .
We know many of the people who live in Barentsburg , some of them could have been on the plane , " said Johan Sletten , 52 .
Sletten , a caretaker who has lived on the island for 30 years , said the Norwegian and Russian communities visit frequently , competing at soccer in the summer and with snow-scooter races in the winter .
Teenage shop assistant Heidi Groenstein was blunter .
" I 'm glad it was not a Norwegian plane , " she said . "
Just think of it -- a mining village where so many workers die .
They must be having a tough time of it now . "
Barentsburg , just a few hours ride by snow-scooter or 15 minutes by helicopter from Longyear , has asked to be left alone with its grief and told reporters to stay away .
Around 100 Russian and Ukrainian miners were waiting in Longyear to fly home on the plane that crashed .
They were given shelter in the town 's church overnight and ate a sombre breakfast before getting on a bus for the airport .
Another plane had been sent from Moscow to pick them up .
At this time of year , the only colour in Longyear comes from the brightly-painted wooden houses .
Everything else is muddy , the waters of the fjord leaden .
Winter is in the air .
Barentsburg is an even grimmer place , a run-down testament to the hardships of the new Russia .
Spitzbergen lies some 500 miles ( 800 km ) off the northern tip of Norway and endures one of the most extreme climates on the planet .
Inhabited by fewer than 3,000 people in total , it sees the sun for 24 hours a day during summer and is plunged into round-the-clock darkness in the winter months .
The terrain is mountainous , the only roads are dirt tracks .
Norway rules the island group under the terms of a 1920s international treaty which gave many other nations the right to establish setttlements and exploit the coal that is still mined there .
Only Russia has chosen to do so .