Visiting Iceland’s famous plane wreck

Iceland is of system very best known for currently being the ‘Land of Fireplace and Ice’, thanks to its a lot of volcanoes and glaciers. There are having said that some other appealing and fairly strange sights, and one particular of these is the aircraft wreck on Sólheimasandur, a black beach front on the south coastline of Iceland.

It is about a 20-minute generate from Vik but to start with a shout-out for The Soup Business in Vik where by we very first stopped for some lunch right before checking out the aircraft wreck.

The Soup Organization is a wonderful area to try out Iceland’s renowned crimson hot lava soup. It’s their signature beef goulash soup, is full of flavour and comes in a black lava bread bowl with yoghurt on the aspect.

But they do many other soups, much too, these types of as an Icelandic lamb soup, a curried fish soup with Iceland cod and shrimps, and an Indian wintertime soup (with carrots, onions, lentils, coconut cream, crushed pineapple and Indian herbs and spices). If you cannot make a decision, merely decide on the tasting menu (for a single) wherever you get to consider three soups in a few bowls.

No matter what you opt for, they are wholesome and filling, and they’ll even refill your bowl if you’d like extra!

Experience suitably refreshed, we hopped again into the automobile and manufactured our way west together Route 1 to see the plane wreck.

But initial, I’ll give a minimal background to the crash. It was again in 1973 that a US Navy transport aircraft ran into issues and crash-landed on the seashore at Sólheimasandur. The aircraft was flying from Hofn Hornafjördur Airport to Naval Air Station Keflavik, just after offering provides to the radar station at Stokksnes. Although documented as the wreck of a Douglas DC-3, it is in fact the continues to be of a converted Douglas C-117.

Various theories abound as to what prompted the crash. The Airline Safety Network states theat the airplane professional serious icing, resulting in the crew becoming unable to sustain altitude, forcing thet plane to land. Some say, however, that the crash occurred for the reason that of a failure by just one of the pilots when switching amongst gas tanks, resulting in the airplane running out of fuel and remaining compelled to land. Seemingly there was thick fog and visibility was so weak that there were being periods when the crew was unable to see the tips of the wings.

There’s even confusion on the day of the crash. Lots of studies say it came down on 24th November 1973, nevertheless the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið experiences, on the 22nd November 1973, that it had crashed the working day prior to the day of publication. This day of 21st November 1973 looks to be exact, and is backed up by the Aviation Protection Community summary.

No matter what happened, and on what ever day, every single crew member survived with out important injuries and the continues to be of the airplane were being abandoned on the seaside. The aircraft was subsequently stripped by the US Navy of nearly anything of benefit, but the major fuselage nevertheless lies in which the airplane crashed. It has beforehand been employed as storage by the farmer whose land it experienced crashed on, as properly as for target exercise by neighborhood hunters (which accounts for the bullet holes you may possibly see), but has since become a tourist attraction in its individual ideal, almost certainly served by protection it has obtained in tunes videos and on Television set (see down below).

You utilized to be capable to push all the way to the crash internet site, or even keep right away there, but each are no longer doable. Although it is positioned on personal land, you can, even so, nevertheless visit and there is a significant auto park just off the major Route 1 ring highway.

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Most folks check out on foot from listed here, but there is the solution to consider the Aircraft Wreck Shuttle. Although people today waited a brief even though for this when we had been there, it quickly materialised that it was not operating. In the earlier, there has been the choice to retain the services of a ‘fat bike’ but we saw no proof of this at the time of our pay a visit to.

A indicator tells readers that it normally takes 3-4 several hours to hike equally approaches.  This doesn’t seem to be all that real looking in my impression – on a good working day, I believe it can be finished one way in about 30 minutes if walking briskly or inside an hour if walking at a a lot more relaxed tempo.  That reported, maybe a generous time estimate is supplied for fantastic motive due to the fact the climate can change promptly and can adversely have an impact on visibility, so it is best to err on the facet of caution. Do acquire treatment – an American tourist died in 2017 near to the airplane, as did two Chinese vacationers in their early 20s in 2020, presumably caught out by adverse weather conditions conditions. It is for that reason a good idea to look at Iceland’s climate service (vedur.is) prior to venturing out. And don’t overlook the emergency quantity in Iceland which is 112.

The path to the plane wreck is more evidently described presently than it has been in the previous, aided by occasional reflective markers in the floor, hopefully lowering the possibility of men and women acquiring dropped.  As walks go, it’s not a incredibly fascinating a person – you are in essence strolling about a glacial outwash simple that looks like this.

Ultimately, soon after about two miles of this almost article-apocalyptic landscape, the path observe veers to the still left and the plane comes into check out in the distance.

When we arrived, there had been persons climbing all in excess of it. I have study that this is unlawful but am not sure if this is true. Irrespective, I wouldn’t recommend it – to begin with, there are parts of the aircraft that did not search quite secure next, it would not be a great position to slip and twist an ankle (or even worse nevertheless, crack a leg) and thirdly, it’s just not pretty considerate to other folks traveling to and seeking to just take images.

Although the aircraft wreck is pretty interesting to see and glance all over, I never assume you are going to have to have that prolonged there once you have witnessed it. It is a interesting scene in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mile on mile of nothingness – just black sand as considerably as the eye can see.

You can see inside the dilapidated fuselage. Seemingly the aircraft served in both of those Korean and Vietnamese wars before getting deployed to Iceland’s Keflavik Airport.

Compared with numerous of Iceland’s points of interest, the aircraft wreck differtiates alone mainly because it is fully artificial, delivering a hanging distinction with its in any other case untouched normal atmosphere.

This surreal scene – a grey fuselage established from a black backdrop and frequently a grey sky, seems to be much more like a scene from a science fiction motion picture that it does reality. For this motive also, of study course, it signifies a photographer’s paradise.

For a range of many years, the regional Icelandic people today did not regard the wreckage to be anything of intercontinental curiosity and fascination and even talked over have it eliminated simply because it was a blot on an if not untouched and pristine landscape.

Provided its enduring recognition today, it looks unlikely that this will at any time materialize. Nonetheless, I’m absolutely sure several would problem the attractiveness in going to this wreck given the several all-natural wonders that you could pay a visit to in Iceland as a substitute.

Probably it’s the otherworldly landscape that the wreck is established in as nicely as the secret that surrounds the crash that provides to the intrigue. One particular factor for sure is that the publicity that the wreck has been given by different media has undoubtedly increased awareness of, and fascination in, the internet site. Maybe most famously of all, Justin Bieber’s movie for the music I’ll Clearly show You attributes him skateboarding on the prime of it. Look at from 2 mins 11 seconds.

The songs movie for the track Gerua in the Bollywood film Diwale sees actors Shah Rukh Khan (aka SRK) and Kajol posing on best of the aircraft. Enjoy from 1 min 31 seconds.

And the new music video for the music Allow Me In, from Korean lady group Loona, also options the plane. Observe from 53 seconds.

Mercurio by Emis Killa is nevertheless a further audio video to feature the wreck. View from 1m 38 seconds.

Lastly, the plane wreck also appears when Mikael encounters it in the Netflix sci-fi drama, Katla.

Setting up a vacation to Iceland yourself? You can view a video from our journey to Iceland below. You can briefly see footage of the aircraft wreck between 5m 23s and 5m 29s:

Disclosure: Our trip to Iceland was also sponsored by Helly Hansen.