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 on 11 March 1955,[2] a son of fisherman Håkon Eriksen and Hildur Aronsen.[1] He started his working career in 1974 at the Elkemaluminium works in Mosjøen, and was a full-time trade unionist between 1980 and 1990.[2] 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.[1]
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.[3] For their actions, Eriksen, his fellow passenger and the pilots received the Polaris Award from the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations.[4]