Pilot returns to wreck half a century later
Gregory Fletcher crash-landed the plane on Sólheimasandur 52 years ago. Composite image/Courtesy/mbl.is/Árni sæberg
“I remember that day very clearly. It was an incredibly tense day,” says Gregory Fletcher, the pilot who crash-landed a Douglas C-117D aircraft on Sólheimasandur in November 1973, saving the lives of everyone on board.
Fletcher, now 79 years old, recalls the dramatic incident in an interview with Morgunblaðið . Next week, he will travel to Iceland to visit the wreckage for the first time since the crash.
“We were flying directly over Vatnajökull in what’s called instrument flight conditions, which meant we were inside the clouds and couldn’t see anything,” Fletcher explains. “We were continuing on course, everything seemed fine—then we slammed into an ice wall.”
Fletcher was 26 years old when he crashed-landed the plane. Photo/Courtesy
Engines failed due to ice buildup
About 45 minutes after takeoff, ice began to form on the aircraft, eventually reaching a critical level.
“Let’s not forget, we were descending at the time,” Fletcher notes.
Like many planes from the World War II era, this particular Douglas aircraft used a traditional carburetor system, requiring oxygen to be mixed with fuel for combustion. The ice blocked this process, causing both engines to fail.
“We went from being a powered cargo plane to a massively overweight glider—and remember, we were descending fast,” he says.
This is what the wreckage looked like in the 1980s. mbl.is/Árni Sæberg
Racing against time
Fletcher describes how the pilot-in-command and the flight engineer worked desperately to restart the engines while he focused on keeping the aircraft stable and figuring out their position and heading—no easy task in an era before GPS navigation.
“I checked my calculations and realized we were over the glacier and descending at about 1,500 feet [roughly 460 meters] per minute. I knew we didn’t have much time before we hit something.”
At that moment, Fletcher made a crucial decision: their chances of survival would be greater if they landed in the ocean rather than on the glacier. He turned the plane south, heading for the coastline.
Asked what went through his mind during those critical moments, whether he thought about the lives at stake, Fletcher replies:
“The only thing I thought about was keeping that plane in the air.”
The crash happened during the same week as Thanksgiving, and Fletcher has undoubtedly shared stories about it at the holiday table at Keflavík Airport. Photo/Courtesy
