Saturday, August 13, 2011

I wonder how the insurance company reacted to this claim?


From Alaska comes this tale of one of the more unusual aviation accidents I've come across.

At the end of the day, we landed in a wide river valley about two miles above where a glacier collided with a mountain wall, with the river cutting in between. We walked down to this point, safely along the mountain and well away from the glacier, to where a big blue glacier face stood opposite the mountain, and explored this spot for almost an hour, and took a lot of pictures. There seemed to be no threat, and even a comforting thought that any falling ice would easily be swept away by the swift river.

There was a small gravel bar on our side of the river, across from the glacier -- and we decided that we would bring the plane into the gravel bar for a photo.

Once there with the plane, we walked around and took some photos, but within a minute of arriving, we heard some crackling in the ice. Before we could get in the plane to depart, a piece came down and instantly displaced the river beneath it, creating a 3 to 5-second blast of sand and water, comparable to an explosion. It shot across the river at us. I dropped my camera while instinctively putting my hands over my face and turning my back to the spray and blast, which swept me up the sand and gravel of the river bank. The plane slid sideways 30 feet, and was crushed up against a stationary block of ice, knocking the gear off and smashing one wing and the tail. The fuselage was twisted and the fabric open. The water sluiced back into the river and all was quiet, less than 15 seconds after it started. We were soaked to the skin.




10 days later, the plane had been moved 100 yards by continuous blasts of water from the calving glacier. The entire glacier had advanced far enough that when large pieces tipped over, they landed directly on the plane.

I got word from my friend who flew over the site on Aug. 7, more than a month after the incident, and he said that the terrain has changed so much that it was entirely unrecognizable from what it looked like the day the incident occurred. The glacier has advanced and covered the original site. There is no trace remaining of the plane.


There's more at the link, as well as more (and larger) photographs. I'm obliged to Miss D. for bringing the link to my attention.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't land too close to calving glaciers! Not exactly a common aviation hazard, is it? I guess it proves once again (as if more proof were needed) that general aviation in the Lower 48 is rather less hazardous than in the Frozen North . . .





Peter

6 comments:

TJIC said...

This story is full of lies.

Glaciers don't advance - they only retreat.

Al Gore told me so!

Murphy's Law said...

RIP Super Cub. Damned shame.

Anonymous said...

The glacier 'collapsed' more than 'advanced'; it is a fairly common step in the decay process. Likely the remnants of the advance will quickly melt and next summer the front of the glacer will be well upslope of where it was when the plane landed. (Glaciers have been melting since the mammoths roamed; the question is only whether/how much mankind is accellerating the process.)

Old NFO said...

Sad end to a great little airplane!

Rev. Paul said...

With apologies to Anonymous, not all glaciers are retreating; several here in Alaska are advancing. This could well be one of them.

Jenny said...

:(

Poor cub.

And what Paul said.

(Oh, you should hear the lodge owner I worked with once go on about some of climate folks they've hosted. "I've lived just downriver from that glacier for twenty years - don't you tell me what it's doing! :) )