P-38 Freed From a Glacier Takes Off for Duxford

glacier-girl.jpg

Plane Freed From a Glacier Sets Out for Britain Again

… a vehicle buried even deeper, with no hoopla, no cosmoline and no thought of retrieval at the time. …

Around 1:30 p.m. Eastern time today, a World War II-era P-38 Lightning fighter plane is set to take off from Teterboro Airport in northeastern New Jersey, bound for Duxford, England — where it is almost 65 years overdue.

The plane was one of six P-38s and two B-17 bombers on their way to help shore up the defenses of the British Isles in July 1942, seven months after Pearl Harbor, when bad weather blocked them first from reaching a refueling base in Iceland and then from making it back to their previous stop in western Greenland. The pilots wound up having to make emergency landings on Greenland’s ice cap, where they were spotted by air and rescued by dogsled teams three days later.

Greenland’s harsh climate soon buried the planes in snow and ice – almost 270 feet of it, eventually — so though the rough whereabouts of what came to be called the Lost Squadron were known, the planes were not precisely located until 1983. Nine years later - when they had been icebound for 50 years - an expedition succeeded in burrowing down to one of the P-38s.

So, once again a P-38 Lightning will head for Duxford.

Comments

  1. Redhand wrote:

    I just hope it doesn’t crash. It’s the only early P-38 in existence, to my knowledge.

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 10:27 pm

  2. Grim wrote:

    Well, except for the others also buried down below. :)

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 11:03 pm

  3. canuckistani wrote:

    I recall seeing a picture of a P-38 flown by the Confederate Air Force, but it’s possible it isn’t flying any more.
    Never seen one in real life, which is one of my many regrets. A very interesting airplane.

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 11:42 pm

  4. Alon Levy wrote:

    P-38 flown by the Confederate Air Force?

    Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 2:04 am

  5. Grim wrote:

    There’s been a slight name change. The old name was a joke — obviously there was never really a Confederate Air Force — but nobody likes jokes anymore. :)

    Well, some of us do. Commie, did you see this?

    Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 5:09 am

  6. Alon Levy wrote:

    Ah, sorry. I hadn’t heard of the CAF before, so I didn’t get the joke.

    Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 5:19 am

  7. commissar wrote:

    I embarrassed to say that I didn’t realize the CAF had changed its name. I guess nobody does like jokes anymore.

    Good catch on the Commie basketball, Grim!

    Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 7:44 am

  8. bthun wrote:

    IIRC CAF used to stop in at Dobbin’s NAS for visits. At least until suburbia moved in tight around the NAS and the home owners decided that planes flying around the area, like the Blue Angles air shows and CAF were… dangerous and noisy, and just where did that airfield come from anyway?

    Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 3:59 pm

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