Iceland Roundup: Political Assassinations, Hells Angels, Plane Crashes, Football & More

The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin editor Aðalsteinn Kjartansson and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to round up the stories making headlines in recent weeks.

In this episode, we cover:

On Saturday night, the police and their special forces arrested three people at a Hells Angels party in Kópavogur. A Hells Angel was first spotted in Iceland in 2009, and the police worry that this special kind of criminal migratory bird might start taking up wintering grounds in Iceland, or, God forbid, breeding grounds;

Isavia, a public company responsible for managing and servicing Icelandic airports, has changed its rules to make sure air traffic controllers cannot watch football games while on the job. Following an air traffic incident in February 2024, when two airplanes almost collided near Reykjavík airport, it came to light that the air traffic controllers on shift during the incident were busy watching a Premier League game between Liverpool and Chelsea. The changed rules state that air traffic controllers are prohibited from using “an electronic device through which material intended for entertainment is transmitted” while on shift, “unless the shift supervisor grants a special exemption for its use.”;

Greg Fletcher, who crash-landed a Douglas Dakota DC-3 C-47 on Sólheimasandur back in 1973, came back to visit the site of the crash. The landing, which was skillfully conducted by Greg, saving himself and his crew of 6, happened when Greg was flying the airplane over Vatnajökull glacier, when they hit icing, resulting in the engines eventually shutting off. Greg also got to meet the president of Iceland, and check out what was the US Military Base in Keflavík, where he was stationed back in the day;

Alþingi convened again after the summer on Tuesday. President of Iceland, Halla Tómasdóttir, addressed the parliament during the opening ceremony. She remarked that she hoped MPs would have the wisdom to establish a sensible framework for parliamentary work, referring to the filibuster that characterised the last session of Alþingi this spring, saying that “perhaps it is time to consider changes to the parliamentary rules of procedure, or even the constitution. It must not, and should not, be the goal of the honourable Alþingi to continue setting records in filibustering.” Earlier the same day, the ruling coalition held a press conference, announcing their main policy and legislative objectives for the coming winter. The coalition introduced 157 items to the parliament’s agenda, including changes to rules on immigration, increased taxation on tourism, doubling of basic tax exemptions for pensioners, changes to the electoral law, a media bill, laws on taxis and so on;

The chairman of the Centre Party is the only Icelandic political figure to bring up Charlie Kirk publicly. We discuss that and the history of political assassinations in Iceland;

We also  talk about how so many “trends” like the Black Death arrive in Iceland decades later than in the rest of Europe and/or the world.