The Glacier Adventure

At a time when Loftleiðir, Iceland's fledglingairline was struggling to remain afloat in themiddle of the 20th century, a group of thecompany's leading figures achieved the featof travelling high onto the country's largestglacier to recover a DC-3 aircraft that the USAir Force had been forced to abandon a yearbefore.The aircraft turned out to be practically un- damaged and the Loftleiðir team were able tofly it back to Reykjavík. The DC-3 was subsequently sold to an overseas airline and provided the company with much-needed finance ata turbulent time in its history.This book recounts the story of the recoveryexpedition in words and pictures, making useof the diaries of Alfreð Elíasson and Árni Kjartansson's outstanding photographs.The expedition to the glacier took a wholemonth and this is a tale of daring and endurance. Loftleiðir's pilots had flown over theglacier while the aircraft was still visible onthe surface, enabling them to establish rough- ly its position. But at the site, they had to digseven metres through the snow to reach Jökull(Glacier), as the DC-3 was christened.This venture onto the glacier was a uniqueachievement in the history of aviation, and iswell known among those with an interest inflight around the world.