ICELAND – American plane wreck

Hi! Today we’re going for a short trip around the neighbourhood. Fans of mountains and juicy greens are asked to either leave or remain silent. It’s going to be grey, empty and post-apo. And short, what doesn’t happen too often.  

Wreck of American Dakota plane is probably one of the most popular touristic attractions in Iceland. It’s on ‘to see’ list even of those, who prefer ore alternative ways of traveling. Whe we were in Iceland two years ago, whe haven’t seen it. Why? I’ll tell you in a minute.

Who is going to enjoy the trip? Fans of technology, war history, post-apo and abandoned places geeks. We are incuded in the last group. 

 

What is the story behind the wreck? It was an emergency landing at the begining of 70s. There is few theories why it happened, one about lack of fuel, and secong about engines failure. Tking into consideration fact, that the plane took off 3 hours drive from the place of landing, I don’t really think lack of fuel is probable. So, we have engines failure left. Waht is the truth? Well, maybe one day we will know for sure… 

 

 

It’s so easy to find it on th Internet, that there’s no sense to tell you where it is here. I’ve even heard that it’s in some of the tourist guides. But it wasn’t always like this. Two years ago it was one of the Iceland’s hidden places, you either had to know where it is or, alternatively, ask locals for directions. That is why we haven’t visited it before. There was no parking, and you needed 4×4 car to drive approx. 3km across the lava desert to find it. We rented Toyota Yaris and were afraid we wouldn’t go too far off road with this car. Besides, it was getting late. 

And how does it look like today? It took only 2 years to build parking space and to set the path for tourists. Those of you who want to take pictures without tourists in the background will have to either go there very early in the morning, or  learn how to use patch tool in Photoshop. Reality looks more or less like that: j

 

 

The good thong is, that, comparing pictures older than 2 years with reality, tourists didn’t destroy the wreck and it looks pretty much the same. Wings were torn off by the wind, which also brought lava stones and made small holes in the metal sheet. I’ve read somewhere, that there was banned entry, because people went crazy with their 4×4 cars and were destroyin the desert, which is private property. But, as you can see all is O.K. now. One thing bothers me – they don’t charge neither for parking, nor for the visit. Yet, I guess.