Odd Eriksen (11 March 1955 – 11 February 2023) was a Norwegian trade unionist and politician for the Labour Party. In addition to his political career he gained national fame after stopping an Algerian hijacker from crashing a Kato Air-flight in 2004.

Biography

Eriksen was born in

Alstahaug Municipality Alstahaug is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandnessjøen. Some of the villages in Alstahaug include Søvika and Tjøtta. Most resi ...

on 11 March 1955, a son of fisherman Håkon Eriksen and Hildur Aronsen. He started his working career in 1974 at the

Elkem Elkem is a company that produces silicones, silicon, alloys for the foundry industry, carbon and microsilica, and other materials. Elkem was founded in 1904, has more than 7,000 employees and fields 30 production sites worldwide. Elkem has an oper ...

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

works in

Mosjøen (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ) or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Vefsn Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Mosjøen is the oldest town in the Helgeland region, with only the Bodø (town), town of Bodø being older with ...

, and was a full-time

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

between 1980 and 1990. From 1986 to 1990 he was leader of the local trade union, and from 1988 to 1990 also a deputy board member of the

Norwegian Union of Chemical Industry Workers The Norwegian Union of Chemical Industry Workers (, NKIF) was a trade union representing workers in the chemical industry in Norway. The union was founded in 1924, as a split from the Norwegian Union of General Workers. It affiliated with the No ...

. Eriksen was elected deputy representative to the

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

for the period 1989 to 1993, and ordinary representative to the Storting from 1993 to 2001. From 1993 to 1997 he was vice chairman of the

Standing Committee on Defence Standing Committee on Defence (SCOF) is usually a parliamentary committee of parliaments of nations following a parliamentary system of governance. It generally scrutinises the government's actions on defence-related matters. List of Standing Com ...

, and a member of the

Standing Committee on Local Government and Public Administration The Standing Committee on Local Government and Public Administration () is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for policies relating to local government, regional and rural policy, immigration policy, housing policy, ...

from 1997 to 2001. From 2003 to 2005 he was the counsellor of transport in

Nordland County Municipality Nordland County Municipality () is the regional governing administration of Nordland county in Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality includes the running of 16 upper secondary schools, with 9,500 pupils. It administers the ...

and chairman of the Labour Party's county chapter. Eriksen became a national celebrity in 2004 after he and a fellow airline passenger stopped another passenger who had attacked the pilots of a Kato Air flight near Bodø with an axe. Eriksen himself broke his back in the fight, but managed to restrain the attacker while the badly injured pilots saved the plane from a nose dive, just 100 feet from hitting the ground. For their actions, Eriksen, his fellow passenger and the pilots received the

Polaris Award The Polaris Award is the highest decoration associated with civil aviation, awarded by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) to airline crews in recognition for acts of exceptional airmanship Airmanship is ski ...

from the

International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) is an international not-for-profit organization of national aircraft pilot trade unions, known as pilot associations. IFALPA was founded in April 1948 and is based in Montreal ...

. Eriksen was Minister of Trade and Industry in the

Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet was the Government of Norway from 17 October 2005 to 16 October 2013. It was a coalition government, coalition between the Labour Party (Norway), Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party (Norway), Socialist Left Party a ...

from 2005 to 2006, resigning from his post on 29 September 2006. He chaired the

from 2006 to 2007, and was reelected for this position for the period 2007–2013. He died on 11 February 2023, at the age of 67, and was survived by two children and three grandchildren.

References

External links

Press release from IFALPA regarding the Polaris Award
(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eriksen, Odd 1955 births 2023 deaths People from Alstahaug People from Vefsn People from Dønna Labour Party (Norway) politicians Government ministers of Norway Nordland politicians Ministers of trade and shipping of Norway Recipients of the Carnegie Medal (Carnegie Hero Fund) Members of the Storting 1997–2001 Members of the Storting 1993–1997