Iceland independence , WW ll and DC3/C-117
After gaining sovereignty from Denmark in 1918 with the signing of the 25-year Danish-Icelandic Act of Union, Iceland followed a policy of strict neutrality. In 1939, with war imminent in Europe, the German Reich pressed for landing rights for Lufthansa’s aircraft for alleged trans-Atlantic flights. The Icelandic government turned them down.
A British request to establish bases in Iceland for the protection of the vital North Atlantic supply lines after German forces occupied Denmark and Norway in April 1940 also was turned down in accordance with the neutrality policy. Nevertheless, the British government felt that it could not do without bases in Iceland and on 10 May 1940 the people of Reykjavík awoke to the sight of a British invasion force. The government of Iceland protested the invasion but asked the populace to treat the occupying force as guests.
Following talks between British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Iceland agreed to a tripartite treaty under which United States Marines were to relieve the British garrison in Iceland on the condition that all military forces be withdrawn from Iceland immediately upon the conclusion of the war in Europe.
In 1949, Iceland voted to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) among protests about the US militarizing the country, and the base became a Cold War base. On 25 May 1951 the U.S. Air Force reestablished a presence at Keflavik Airport with the establishment of the 1400th Air Base Group. MATS (later MAC and Air Mobility Command) units remained at the airport until the withdrawal of United States military units from Iceland in 2006. The base is regularly visited by the American military, which uses it for emergency landings. In 2016 the United States began preparations to re-occupy the base. In 2017 the United States announced its intention to construct a modern air base on the peninsula.
What was the airplane doing and where was it headed
On top of the presence at Keflavík airbase the US Navy had 4 radar stations in strategically important places in Iceland. One of those places was in the east at Stokksnes close by the town of Hornafjörður. These stations where mostly used to monitor aviation around Iceland but also to search for submarine traffic in the waters in and around the country. These stations that where manned, needed supply and it was from one of such supply cargo trip that the C-117 was coming. The plain was high over Vatnajökull on its way back to the naval air station in Keflavík.
What really happened to the DC3 that is in fact C-117
Iceland has one of the most volatile weather patterns on the planet and at that time it had primitive navigational beacons causing more US military planes to crash on this tiny, Kentucky- sized island than almost anywhere else on Earth.
According to public military records from the Air Force and Navy, from 1941 to 1973, there were 385 US military aviation accidents in Iceland. That’s roughly one accident every 31 days for 33 straight years.
“You have to understand that the weather in Iceland is a very powerful thing. It probably changes faster than anywhere else in the world except the Poles, and that’s why we don’t typically fly over the Poles.” – Lieutenant Gregory Fletcher, a 26-year-old pilot in training said after the accident.
ON 21 of November 1973, the day before thanks giving, the C-117 was flown by captain James Wicke on a routine mission to the east when the weather turned to the worse and temperature plunged to -10°C. The wind gust increased to 96kmh (60Mph), and the carburettor started sucking in ice. As the weather force increased, the fight with heavy turbulence was lost and both engines froze solid and stopped spinning.
Wrapped in heavy fog, the five passengers had no clue as to where they where as they could not even see the tip of the wings when they looked out the window, fearing the worst, that they where going to crash into a mountain and die.
