Hikers find crash-landed American B-17 bomber on Icelandic glacier
  • 4 years ago
Fresh video footage shows how an American B-17 bomber that crash-landed on an Icelandic ice cap during WWII is gradually coming to light as the glacier recedes. The B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crashed into the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland on16th September 1944. Miraculously, all 10 US crew members survived the crash. Initially, the wreckage was covered by snow and gradually swallowed by the glacier, but since the glacier has started melting in recent years, the wreckage has started to resurface, now in pieces after being ground to bits by the glacier. Some pieces are easily recognisable to the eye, and the site now looks like a scrapyard. There have been calls to have the area cleaned up, but some locals, like the former mayor of Isafjorour, Guomundur Gunnarsson, 44, see the wreck as a tourist attraction and have rejected the requests for its removal. An experienced hiker, Gunnarsson told Real Press: ““Icelanders, like myself, we are used to wide open spaces and unspoiled raw nature. It is surreal to wander in the proximity of glaciers and stumble upon glimpses of warfare like that in a country that has never even had an army and where unforgiving nature meets man-made machines of destruction like that. “I spend a large part of my life in the mountains and this was one the most spectacular experiences I have ever had,” Gunnarsson said. The former mayor originally from the Westfjords of Iceland said that ever since he heard about the wreck he felt restless and was determined to see it with his own eyes. Some of his friends shared the same interest and together they decided to travel to the area.
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