The most famous plane wreck
Whenever I'm in Iceland, I'm always drawn to what's probably the most famous aircraft wreck—a transport plane that's been lying just west of Vik for 50 years. Month after month, weather and bargain hunters decimate the remains. From time to time, friends ask me what this wreck is all about. If you're interested in the story of this aircraft, you'll find more information after the photo galleries at the bottom of this page .
The silver fuselage on the black lava sand is predestined for a stark black-and-white rendering. I edited the images in Lightroom to capture the somewhat surreal atmosphere of the scene. I photographed the wreckage three times – in July 2023, January 2019, and July 2014, during our first trip to Iceland. As you can see, over these nine years, bargain hunters have dismantled a significant portion of the aircraft into small pieces and taken home.
July 2023
January 2019
July 2014
History
This airplane wreck has been lying on the beach at Solheimsandur since 1973. It is not, as is often assumed, a DC3, but a converted Douglas C-117 used by American soldiers to transport their supplies.
Iceland has some of the most volatile weather in the world. Navigational aids were still relatively primitive at the time, resulting in more US military aircraft crashes on the tiny Kentucky-sized island than almost anywhere else in the world. According to public military documents from the Air Force and Navy, there were no fewer than 385 accidents involving US military aircraft in Iceland between 1941 and 1973. That's roughly one accident every 31 days for 33 consecutive years.
"You have to understand that the weather in Iceland is a very powerful force. It probably changes faster than anywhere else in the world, except for the poles, and that's why we don't usually fly over the poles," said Lieutenant Gregory Fletcher, the 26-year-old co-pilot in training, after the accident.
Let’s turn back the clock about 50 years:
Dramatic moments on board
It is November 21, 1973, the day before Thanksgiving. Captain James Wicke's C-117 is on a transport flight from Keflavik to the military base near Höfn. During the flight, the weather worsens. The temperature drops rapidly to -10°C, and wind gusts increase to nearly 100 km/h. The carburetor begins to ice over. As the weather worsens, the battle against the elements is lost. Both engines freeze and stop.
Captain Wicke sends out a distress signal and attempts to restart the engines. The distress signal is picked up by another Air Force aircraft, and three planes and two helicopters are immediately airborne. All ships passing Iceland's south coast are alerted, as it is unknown exactly where the aircraft will land after co-pilot Lieutenant Gregory Fletcher, a 26-year-old trainee pilot with only 21 hours of C-117 flight experience, makes a daring decision:
For reasons still unknown to me, Fletcher takes over the piloting from James Wicke. He knows that if he continues inland, the plane will crash into a mountain—which would mean certain death for him, the pilot, and the five passengers. So he chooses the better of two options: He'll attempt a landing on the ocean to give them at least a small chance of survival.
The plane continues to lose altitude and breaks through the clouds. Fletcher spots a coastline ahead—"a damn thing that looked like the moon," he later says. He brings the plane down and slides 27 meters over the sand dune. During the emergency landing, the propellers bend, the engine cowling is crushed, and the fuel tanks burst. The C-117 comes to rest six meters from the waterline. Fletcher saves the lives of all seven passengers.
"That was the softest landing I've ever experienced," Howard Rowley, Air Force Master Sergeant and passenger on board, would later say.
The rescue
A farmer near the crash site hears the noise of the emergency landing. He and his wife rush to their tractor and battle their way through the snowstorm to the beach, unaware of what awaits them there. Other farmers in the area follow suit, and the nearest search and rescue (SAR) team, stationed in Vik, also sets out. From radio data on the aircraft's speed and altitude, they had already calculated that the plane would land on Sólheimasandur, somewhere between Mýrdalssandur and the Atlantic. At 2:00 p.m., just an hour after the emergency landing, the rescue team from Vík arrives at the aircraft – just as the survivors are being airlifted away by an air force search helicopter. At the military base in Keflavík, it turns out that the people survived the crash unharmed, not even a scratch – something that cannot be said for the aircraft.
Dismantling the aircraft
Dismantling of the aircraft began immediately. The 800 liters of fuel the C-117 still had on board were handed over to the SAR. This was enough to power the snowmobiles and rescue vehicles for the next few years. The wings were sawed off, the cockpit dismantled, and the engines removed. Everything that could be salvaged from the C-117 was salvaged. Two days after the crash, the fuselage lay like a skeleton in the black, apocalyptic desert. The US military simply abandoned the 10,000-pound fuselage on the beach and made off.
Why is the C-117 still on Sólheimasandur?
According to Friðþór Eydal, who was in charge of public affairs for the Icelandic Armed Forces under US command from 1983 to 2006, the stationing agreement between the two nations stipulated that if a US aircraft crashed in Iceland, the US would cover 85 percent of the salvage costs, but the Icelandic government would be responsible for removing the wreckage.
"This scenario would only occur if a landowner claimed the right to remove the wreck," says Eydal. "And that has almost never happened in a place like Iceland."
And why? According to Eydal, there are two reasons: First, the island is 80 percent uninhabited, and more than 60 percent of the land is covered by glaciers. Second, due to its harsh climate and limited natural resources, Iceland has to import almost everything. Therefore, Icelanders tend not to waste recyclable materials and creatively repurpose what little they have. When planes crashed, resourceful Icelanders transformed the remains of the aircraft into roofs, fences, and other household items. The military was fine with that—a kind of win-win situation...
Image: Thorir Kjartansson
A rare photo
A member of the Icelandic rescue team at the time, Þórir Kjartansson, took a photo of the aircraft one day after the emergency landing – still with its engines and wings. As can be seen in the photo, the aircraft was positioned somewhat differently then. The current position is the result of the disassembly of the engines and wings.
And she is still there
Today, almost exactly 50 years later, the C-117 still stands on the deserted beach of Solheimansandur, but heavily decimated by bargain hunters who like to take home a souvenir.
We can only imagine the rollercoaster of emotions the seven people experienced on November 21, 1973. The great fear on board when they realized the plane was no longer controllable. Screams? Prayers? We don't know. But we can imagine the silence after the emergency landing: Gregory managed to land the plane. Everyone was uninjured. Deep sighs of relief. Gratitude. Perhaps a prayer of thanks.
We should keep all this in mind when we visit the most famous airplane wreck in the world on the south coast of Iceland.
