US WWII fighter plane that crashed into Iceland's glacier in 1944 resurfaces

Debris from a US fighter plane from World War II has resurfaced at Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull glacier as climate change triggered the glacier to recede. According to a local Icelandic media outlet, Iceland Monitor, the American B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crashed into the glacier on September 16, 1944, and it was carrying ten crew members, who survived. Over the decades, the glaciers had broken the wreck into multiple pieces, however, some of them still remained easily recognisable. 

The recent discovery of the wreck was made by the former mayor of the West Fjords. While taking to Facebook, Guðmundur Gunnarsson, who is also an experienced hiker, shared the images of the site where the debris was found. The crash site appeared to be like a junkyard as Gunnarsson and his friends found clothes, shoes and parachutes before the engines, electric equipment and other scraps from the wreck. 

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1944 plane crash 

Back in 1944, the US bomber plane had landed at Keflavík Airport in Iceland for refuelling. It was on its way to England when the plane crashed into Eyjafjallajökull glacier. According to reports, the weather conditions were poor in Iceland and the plane also faced some technical difficulties which led to the crash. 

Fortunately, the landing was not very rough as the aircraft landed in the snow and kept gliding until it came to an abrupt stop in a snowbank. One of its wings was, however, torn off and the engines also caught fire. The ten crew members on the flight survived the crash and sought at a nearby cliff. They were clueless about their whereabouts and they also couldn’t contact the US Air Force. 

It was two days after the mishap that some of the passengers made it to the inhabited places in the country and were later rescued. By the end of that month, two expeditions to the glacier were conducted by the American Military. The first one made it to the wreck and removed some items from it. The second group, however, couldn’t make it to the wreck and eventually, the glacier swallowed the plane. 

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