
Iceland’s Ghost Planes - bootload
https://warisboring.com/icelands-ghost-planes-63147a860163
======
alexandrerond
Iceland makes it very explicit that emergency assistance is free of charge and
that if you're in trouble, you should call without hesitation (they even have
an app where you click a button and your position is transmitted to the SAR
center).

This policy saves lives, but unfortunately there's a tendency these days in
some countries to back-charge for SAR ops when they are a result of
irresponsible choices like many mentioned in the article.

Thumbs up for Iceland!

~~~
Swizec
That's what we do in Slovenian alps. Rescue is free and immediate. Just call
and volunteers come get you.

But if you're in trouble because of negligence or improper equipment - like
hiking at 6000ft in high heels [1] - then we send you a receipt.

[1] some of the stories that make it into the news are really crazy. Like a
group of high school students that went on an half day hike without food or
water just in their t-shirts. By the time they were rescued, after getting
lost, almost all of them had hypothermia. I think criminal charges were
brought against the teacher.

~~~
saiya-jin
France has free chopper rescues from, well anywhere, no questions asked (the
line between uninformed decision and negligence can be pretty blurry
especially if a lot of cash/criminal charges are floating around).

There are cases of inexperienced climbers (one I know from Poland) where
reluctance to call chopper in critical situation due to worries of costs (plus
losing the face) cost 3 young guys lives. Too many like these.

Chopper rescues in alps are in almost daily order (especially in winter in
places like Vallee Blanche, best and longest of-piste in Europe). A friend of
mine was rescued like this in Calanques next to Marseille after she broke her
feet after climbing accident. Chopper was called due to inaccessible terrain,
and she had a cool ride hanging from chopper by harness over Mediterranean
sea.

~~~
snaily
> Vallee Blanche, best and longest of-piste in Europe

Longest, by virtue of being very flat. Scenery is great, but the ride is
(sometimes literally) pedestrian.

~~~
saiya-jin
well, you do some 2800m altitude difference in 21 kms. math is clear there, no
magic involved :)

------
xfour
That is some amazing journalism. I learned a ton of things I never knew about
Iceland, and a fair bit about what happens when Justin Beiber is filmed in
your plane. Dude has to rescue tourists every single day? That's not a very
sustainable solution. Hopefully a locked gate and a tourism company selling
ATV tours outta help.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
It's sheep country. There is a tractor preventing vehicles from accessing it,
but on foot it's just 3-wire sheep fences as far as the eye can see. At a 2
hour drive from Reykjavik and a 5 mile round trip walk, it's not exactly a
massive trek. I was with a bunch of city-folk and they wanted to do it. The
problem is that the terrain is moon-like with grey dust/rocks in every
direction and completely flat. I can see how easy it is to get disoriented in
the summer, let alone when there is snow on the ground.

As an aside, visiting it was the worst part of my trip. I honestly don't
recommend it to anyone. 5 minutes down the road is a gorgeous waterfall you
can walk up that provided infinitely more pleasure than walking 5 miles round
trip through unchanging landscape. Granted, I didn't want to go in the first
place, so grain of salt.

------
shermozle
"no country has attacked Iceland in the last 70 years"

This isn't strictly true:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars)

~~~
afarrell
Access to cod-rich waters was something the US insisted on in the treaty of
Paris that ended the revolutionary war. By "the US insisted", I mean "John
Adams insisted", because he was from Massachusetts, which has an eleven-inch
carved-wood cod sculpture hanging in the legislature.

------
thinkingkong
Greenland also has a pretty interesting one. The Kee Bird. There's a really
cool documentary on it here.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird)

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/b29-frozen.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/b29-frozen.html)

------
mastazi
You would think that after such a long time Medium would have fixed this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10573027](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10573027)

I mean, if you try to skim quickly through the article all you see is blurred
rectangular stains

EDIT: sorry for being OT, the article itself is very interesting.

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paganel
Is that a Wartburg 353 in this photo: [https://cdn-
images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*L7BcV-FTlF0fu5xL....](https://cdn-
images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*L7BcV-FTlF0fu5xL.jpg) ? It looks like one to
me, and I had no idea that they imported Wartburgs into Iceland.

~~~
avar
It likely wasn't anything particularly organized. When I was growing up in the
early 90s in a small fishing village in Iceland I remember that Russian ships
would dock from time to time to sell hundreds of used cars from the Soviet
Union.

I wouldn't be surprised if this specimen arrived in Iceland like that.

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Mithaldu
What the HDR did to this photo made me think at first that it was a fake:
[https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*siYQW-p1KCi78K9P....](https://cdn-
images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*siYQW-p1KCi78K9P.jpg)

The edges are completely messed up.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
From off my phone, here's a healthy dose of realism:
[http://i.imgur.com/VALSKcb.png](http://i.imgur.com/VALSKcb.png)

and the surrounding landscape:
[http://i.imgur.com/Be9c5Nb.png](http://i.imgur.com/Be9c5Nb.png)

~~~
Mithaldu
Haha, i wasn't thinking anything there was fake.

And thanks a lot, those shots are really beautiful. I much prefer the simple
bright daylight over the shots in the article. :)

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mathgenius
I am like the worlds worst tourist. Whenever I go someplace new I end up
coding in my hotel room or drinking in the local establishment, which is the
summary of my five day trip to iceland in 2010. After reading this article I
don't feel so bad about it.

~~~
niij
Why waste the money?

~~~
hueving
The same could be said about any tourism. It's value is not measured by which
checkboxes of tourist things you fill, it's whether or not you enjoyed
visiting somewhere new. Drinking at the local bar in another country is a good
way to get a feel for life there.

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INTPenis
Amazing article, gave me chills. "The weather is about to turn." Truly these
people have the utmost respect for nature and the tourists could stand to
learn some of it.

~~~
dalke
The joke about England is "Don't like the weather? Wait a few minutes; it will
change."

The response for Iceland is "Wait a few minutes; it will get worse."

