In 1973, a United States Navy DC-3 did an emergency landing in the black sand near Solheimasandur (Sólheimasandur), Iceland. The internets say that the crew survived, and as of today (May 14, 2014), the fuselage is still there, attracting adventurous tourists who are willing drive off road a bit. I’ve seen a few plane wrecks underwater, but this is the first one I’ve seen on land.
Shot with DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter and Ricoh GR camera. I also took some aerial video.
Update, August 20, 2015: On February 25, 2015, I received an amazing email from Mike Henebry, USAF, CMSgt (retired), who gave me permission to share his email. It took me 6 months to share because Mako had just been born back then—I forgot that I had planned on posting the email until I was doing captions research about this image tonight.
Email from Mike:
This is from my records: “Rummy and our Superintendent of Operations, SMSgt Sid Rowley went on our support aircraft on the way back to Keflavik for [a medical appointment]. The Navy had recently swapped out their two older C-117s (C-47s – like DC3), which had been used in the Berlin Airlift, with planes having much larger engines, and both airplanes were having engine icing problems flying in Iceland’s clouds. Half way to Keflavik, both engines froze up and quit! Gliding through an overcast, they broke out of the clouds at 2500 feet directly over a long, flat beach! The crew made a perfect dead stick landing and no one was hurt (they later got Navy Commendation Medals). This was in a radio dead spot for both us and Keflavik. An overhead airliner heading to or from the States heard their Mayday call and notified Keflavik. The Navy was reluctant to send anyone to help since there was an active volcano eruption taking place only a couple miles away. Anyway, a chopper was sent out to get the crew, passengers, and the cargo, making a couple of round trip flights. Because of concern over the volcano and danger to the people, the Navy decided not to try to recover the entire aircraft, and eventually salvaged the engines, avionics and some other parts of the airplane, leaving the fuselage and parts of the wings.”
“Rummy” was my roommate, SSgt Vernon G. Rumskog of West Salem, WI. We were stationed at the USAF radar site at Hofn, on the southeast coast.
The other aircraft crashed at the Hofn airstrip after it was blown off the runway by high winds. The fuselage was moved to a near by lake as a fishing shack for the site people.
These airplanes were our primary means of travel between Keflavik and Hofn.
By the way, you’ve got some great photos on the net!
Mike Henebry
USAF, CMSgt, Retired