Found debris of a plane and a human skull

Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson GK-255 found debris of an airplane and human …

Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson GK-255 found debris of an airplane and human remains while fishing in Jökuldýpi west of Reykjanes peninsula. Photo/The Icelandic Coast Guard

The crew of Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson GK-255 received part of the plane debris and human remains in the trawler on Wednesday while the ship was fishing in Jökuldýpi, about 50 miles west of Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland. Vísir.is reported the matter first.

Captain Kristján Ólafsson tells mbl.is that it is a part of the tail, part of the plane’s exterior and another motor. “It’s not a whole plane, there are no interiors or anything like that. Just parts of the debris,” he says.

Markings are pretty well visible, so the crew thinks they know which plane it is.

“It’s painted on it and there is one more marking, so we think we know which engine it is, but we need, however, to get that confirmed.”

The debris brought up the human remains, a large part of a skull, according to Ólafsson.

Found the skull during the procession

The first time the crew saw the debris in the trawler, they could not figure out what it was about, they just saw it as some foreign object. Yet, they were intrigued.

“It’s unusual and people started to speculate what it was and then what airplane it was. So when we started to process the fish, there’s more to comes up like airplane parts. There’s also a bag, along with this body part. So we never saw it in the trolley."

The Coast Guard was subsequently contacted and the crew was instructed to preserve the debris and human remains.

“It’s presumably a body part of the pilot and there’s a certain respectful protocol we have around it,” says Ólafsson, but it was not considered necessary for the ship to come ashore for the meeting.

Úlfur Lúðvíksson, the police chief of Suðurnes, confirms to mbl.is that the matter has been brought to their attention. The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police will investigate the remains when they come ashore and the Transport Accident Investigation Board will examine the debris from the plane.

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