Seven Planes Down On Greenland
In November 1942, a military transport aircraft made a forced landing on Greenland’s ice cap, and a B-17 Flying Fortress sent to search for it also crashed in whiteout conditions, leaving its crew stranded on an active glacier riddled with crevasses. The surviving airmen huddled first in the B-17’s broken tail, then in a snow shelter under a wing, enduring subzero temperatures, brutal storms, deepening frostbite, and months of isolation while they eked out a living on emergency rations and occasional airdrops.
Rescue attempts by U.S. Army Air Forces, Navy, Coast Guard, Canadians, and Norwegian sled patrols went wrong again and again, costing six more aircraft to crashes or forced landings and several rescuers to crevasses and the cold. After almost five and a half months on the glacier, a PBY Catalina and dogsled teams finally collected the last three B-17 crewmen and led them off the ice to safety.