Emily Chan
Then, tragedy struck the community. In 1966, a plane chartered by Trust Arktikugol left Moscow for its destination, the Svalbard archipelago. The passengers on the flight were mostly Pyramiden residents.
Due to the plane’s crew speaking very little English, a communication error caused the plane to steer off course and crash straight into the mountain Operafjellet.
All 141 passengers and crew members on board were killed. After that, the whole community was shrouded in a dark cloud of grief that never quite seemed to lift. Economic troubles further degraded their spirit.
In Pyramiden, coal mining was producing low profits, so the miners weren’t making much money. Eventually, it was decided that the coal mining operation would be shut down.
Less than two years after the plane crash, every resident had packed up and left. By the fall of 1988, Pyramiden was a ghost town.
Today, the ghost town is a “living museum” run by a few caretakers and guides. Each year, thousands of tourists visit the eerie settlement to get a glimpse of what life was like in the former Soviet utopia.
