A small homemade airplane was damaged when a pilot landed it on the frozen surface of Þingvallavatn in March of this year, Morgunblaðið reports. The pilot and others on board tried to fix the plane and take off again, but the plane crashed again. No one was injured.
This was stated in a reports by the Icelandic Transportation Safety Board on the incident. The plane took off from the fishing airport at Hólmsheiði en route to Landmannalaugar and was traveling with another plane. On the way back the pilot decided to land on Þingvallavatn, which was frozen at the time. There was sludge on the surface of the ice and the front wheel was damaged upon landing.
The pilot of the second plane flew on to Reykjavík City Airport after contacting the pilot of the downed plane to confirm that no one was hurt. He called for help, and another man arrived in a snowmobile about three hours later to rescue the stranded passengers. They tried to fix the damaged wheel and take off again from the ice, but it began to bend again and its screw had been damaged, according to a report on the incident in Morgunblaðið today.
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