A vintage P-38 has been discovered entombed beneath 340 feet of glacial ice in Greenland by the non-profit organization, Arctic Hot Point Solutions. The aircraft was identified as part of the Lost Squadron, a group of six P-38 Lightnings and two B-17 Flying Fortresses forced down in a Greenland blizzard on July 15, 1942. The squadron was enroute to aid the Allied war effort in the British Isles when they were forced down on the glaciers. While all crewmembers were safely rescued nine days later, the aircraft were abandoned.
In 1992, one of the squadron’s P-38s, “Glacier Girl,” was removed from the ice and restored to flying condition.
This P-38 recently discovered, named “Echo,” was first detected in 2011. Arctic Hot Point Solutions returned to the site earlier this year with radar-equipped drones to aid in the search for more planes buried in the ice. The group used a heat probe to penetrate the ice in an attempt to touch the suspected airplane. The probe was retrieved coated in 5606 hydraulic fluid, widely used in aircraft. “We weren’t anticipating that,” explained Jim Salazar, a co-founder of Arctic Hot Point Solutions, told Popular Mechanics. “We pulled the probe back up, and lo and behold it had all that hydraulic fuel all over it.”
