The plane wreck on Sólheimasandur glacial outwash plain in South Iceland has featured in countless traveler photos, a Bollywood movie, several TV commercials and music videos, perhaps most famously in a 2007 Sigur Rós documentary, and more recently in the video for Justin Bieber’s I’ll Show You. The scenery and otherworldly composition of black sand and weathered gray hulk of the plane draw thousands of visitors every year.
Cause of crash still a mystery
According to official US records the crash took place on November 24, but this is incorrect: The correct time and date is the afternoon of November 21, 1973, as reported by local media and eyewitness accounts. The cause of the crash are somewhat unclear as accounts differ as to whether it was due to human error, a mechanical failure, the plane running out of fuel, a storm – or a combination of all these factors. The most popular theory of what caused the crash is that the plane crashed after running out of fuel during a storm, after the pilot accidentally switched to the wrong fuel tank.
The plane was returning to Keflavík from the town Höfn in Hornafjörður fjord, in Southeast Iceland. It had been delivering equipment for the US Radar Station on Stokkses east of Höfn. Suddenly the plane was caught in a storm, the temperatures fell to below -10°C (x°F) with a thick fog and powerful windgusts with sleet and precipitation, causing ice to built up on the plane.
A landscape that looked like the surface of the moon
The captain, James Wicke, fought the storm and mechanical difficulties. His copilot, Gregory Fletcher, was still in training and had only flown 21 hours in a plane of this type, none of which had prepared him for this kind of an ordeal. Suddenly both of the planes engines gave out, causing the plane to start losing altitude. The thick fog did not make things easier for the crew: Visibility was so poor that at times the crew was unable to see the tips of the wings.
Wicke send out a distress call, handing the control over to his co-pilot. As the plane appeared to be headed straight for a mountain, Fletcher made the decision to head south, with the goal of attempting an emergency landing on the sea. He calculated that the crew stood a better chance of surviving a crash landing in the sea than in a steep mountainside.
When the plane came down through the thick clouds Fletcher discovered they were flying over a plane that looked like some place on the surface of the moon. He made an emergency landing on the frozen beach, managing to stop the plane when it was only six meters (18 ft) from where the waves of the ocean crashed on the black sand.
All five crew members survived the crash uninjured, but the plane was badly damaged.
In the middle of nowhere
The crew hurried out of the plane, as they feared the plane might catch fire, as the fuel tanks had been damaged in the crash. The only things they grabbed with them were the first-aid kit and an old radio, dating back to WWII. Their earlier distress call had been picked up by a Hercules transport on route from Europe to Keflavík. The Naval base in Keflavík, as well as local ICE-SAR battalions had been alerted and a rescue operation was already being prepared when the plane crashed. The crew only had to wait an hour before a US rescue chopper from Keflavík reached them, airlifting them back to the base.
The US Navy decided that recovering the plane from the crash site on the barren sand near the ocean, some 3.5 km (2.5 mi) from the nearest road, Suðurlandsvegur was too difficult. (The following year Suðurlandsvegur became part of the Ring Road, when Skeiðará river, the last of the great glacial rivers of South Iceland was finally bridged. At the time of the crash the site was literally in the middle of nowhere.)
After the Navy had stripped the plane of everything of any value the empty husk was left on the sand where it has stood ever since. For years the empty plane was used as a storage by the farmer whose land it had crashed on. It was also used as target practice by local hunters, who riddled it wit bullet holes while practicing their aim.
Fletcher was later awarded an Air Medal Bronze Star for saving the crew with the successful emergency landing.
One of four veterans of the Korean War
The plane was one of four Douglas Dakota planes based at the US Navy base in Keflavík Airport. Keflavík Airport was an important US military base during the Cold War, as it allowed the US to monitor Soviet military movements in the North Atlantic. The base, which was constructed during WWII, was closed in 2006 when the US Navy left Iceland.
The Douglas Dakota which crashed on Sólheimasandur is usually identified as a DC-3, but this is incorrect. The plane was one of 100 Douglas Dakota planes which the US Navy and Marine Corps had modified to improve take-off and single engine performance. These planes were referred to as Super DC-3, officially designated as Douglas C-117.
The four Dakotas based in Keflavík had all previously served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. All four completed their service in Iceland: The other three Dakotas were all damaged during take-off at Keflavík.
How to get there?
To get to the wreck you need to walk from the parking lot, which is located south of the Ring Road between the village Vík and Skógar waterfall. If you are heading east to Vík the parking lot is to your right shortly after crossing the river Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi. The plane cannot be seen from the road, as it is located 3.5 km from the road.
The GPS coordinates for the wreck are (63 27.546-19 21.887).
Dangerous during the winter
The path leading from the parking lot to the plane is easy to hike in normal conditions, but during winter, when it is covered by blowing snow it can be difficult to find, and people should not attempt to make the hike in winter – except in the company of an experienced guide. In winter ICE-SAR is regularly called to rescue travelers who have gotten lost attempting to find the wreck, or are in distress and danger due to a sudden deterioration of the weather.
Getting lost on Sólheimasandur is no joke: The glacial outwash plains of South Iceland have claimed numerous lives. In October 2017 a young US traveler died of exposure on Sólheimasandur near the plane wreck.
The plane wreck on Sólheimasandur glacial outwash plain in South Iceland has featured in countless traveler photos, a Bollywood movie, several TV commercials and music videos, perhaps most famously in a 2007 Sigur Rós documentary, and more recently in the video for Justin Bieber’s I’ll Show You. The scenery and otherworldly composition of black sand and weathered gray hulk of the plane draw thousands of visitors every year.
Cause of crash still a mystery
According to official US records the crash took place on November 24, but this is incorrect: The correct time and date is the afternoon of November 21, 1973, as reported by local media and eyewitness accounts. The cause of the crash are somewhat unclear as accounts differ as to whether it was due to human error, a mechanical failure, the plane running out of fuel, a storm – or a combination of all these factors. The most popular theory of what caused the crash is that the plane crashed after running out of fuel during a storm, after the pilot accidentally switched to the wrong fuel tank.
The plane was returning to Keflavík from the town Höfn in Hornafjörður fjord, in Southeast Iceland. It had been delivering equipment for the US Radar Station on Stokkses east of Höfn. Suddenly the plane was caught in a storm, the temperatures fell to below -10°C (x°F) with a thick fog and powerful windgusts with sleet and precipitation, causing ice to built up on the plane.
A landscape that looked like the surface of the moon
The captain, James Wicke, fought the storm and mechanical difficulties. His copilot, Gregory Fletcher, was still in training and had only flown 21 hours in a plane of this type, none of which had prepared him for this kind of an ordeal. Suddenly both of the planes engines gave out, causing the plane to start losing altitude. The thick fog did not make things easier for the crew: Visibility was so poor that at times the crew was unable to see the tips of the wings.
Wicke send out a distress call, handing the control over to his co-pilot. As the plane appeared to be headed straight for a mountain, Fletcher made the decision to head south, with the goal of attempting an emergency landing on the sea. He calculated that the crew stood a better chance of surviving a crash landing in the sea than in a steep mountainside.
When the plane came down through the thick clouds Fletcher discovered they were flying over a plane that looked like some place on the surface of the moon. He made an emergency landing on the frozen beach, managing to stop the plane when it was only six meters (18 ft) from where the waves of the ocean crashed on the black sand.
All five crew members survived the crash uninjured, but the plane was badly damaged.
In the middle of nowhere
The crew hurried out of the plane, as they feared the plane might catch fire, as the fuel tanks had been damaged in the crash. The only things they grabbed with them were the first-aid kit and an old radio, dating back to WWII. Their earlier distress call had been picked up by a Hercules transport on route from Europe to Keflavík. The Naval base in Keflavík, as well as local ICE-SAR battalions had been alerted and a rescue operation was already being prepared when the plane crashed. The crew only had to wait an hour before a US rescue chopper from Keflavík reached them, airlifting them back to the base.
The US Navy decided that recovering the plane from the crash site on the barren sand near the ocean, some 3.5 km (2.5 mi) from the nearest road, Suðurlandsvegur was too difficult. (The following year Suðurlandsvegur became part of the Ring Road, when Skeiðará river, the last of the great glacial rivers of South Iceland was finally bridged. At the time of the crash the site was literally in the middle of nowhere.)
After the Navy had stripped the plane of everything of any value the empty husk was left on the sand where it has stood ever since. For years the empty plane was used as a storage by the farmer whose land it had crashed on. It was also used as target practice by local hunters, who riddled it wit bullet holes while practicing their aim.
Fletcher was later awarded an Air Medal Bronze Star for saving the crew with the successful emergency landing.
One of four veterans of the Korean War
The plane was one of four Douglas Dakota planes based at the US Navy base in Keflavík Airport. Keflavík Airport was an important US military base during the Cold War, as it allowed the US to monitor Soviet military movements in the North Atlantic. The base, which was constructed during WWII, was closed in 2006 when the US Navy left Iceland.
The Douglas Dakota which crashed on Sólheimasandur is usually identified as a DC-3, but this is incorrect. The plane was one of 100 Douglas Dakota planes which the US Navy and Marine Corps had modified to improve take-off and single engine performance. These planes were referred to as Super DC-3, officially designated as Douglas C-117.
The four Dakotas based in Keflavík had all previously served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. All four completed their service in Iceland: The other three Dakotas were all damaged during take-off at Keflavík.
How to get there?
To get to the wreck you need to walk from the parking lot, which is located south of the Ring Road between the village Vík and Skógar waterfall. If you are heading east to Vík the parking lot is to your right shortly after crossing the river Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi. The plane cannot be seen from the road, as it is located 3.5 km from the road.
The GPS coordinates for the wreck are (63 27.546-19 21.887).
Dangerous during the winter
The path leading from the parking lot to the plane is easy to hike in normal conditions, but during winter, when it is covered by blowing snow it can be difficult to find, and people should not attempt to make the hike in winter – except in the company of an experienced guide. In winter ICE-SAR is regularly called to rescue travelers who have gotten lost attempting to find the wreck, or are in distress and danger due to a sudden deterioration of the weather.
Getting lost on Sólheimasandur is no joke: The glacial outwash plains of South Iceland have claimed numerous lives. In October 2017 a young US traveler died of exposure on Sólheimasandur near the plane wreck.
