“Too Dangerous” To Retrieve Car From Jökulsárlón

An unmanned car that rolled and sank into Jökulsárlón will remain there, as police believe attempts at trying to retrieve the car will be too dangerous.

“It is actually clear that the conditions are always changing, as the ice blocks are moving,” Höfn police officer Jóhann Hilmar Haraldsson told Vísir. “At this point, the project is considered very complicated, and could be especially dangerous for divers to reach the car, so the police won’t be approaching the car beyond an investigative perspective.”

These conditions may change, he added, but the conditions right now make it prohibitively dangerous to attempt to pull the car out of the lagoon. The Environment Agency of Iceland has not yet done an environmental assessment of the situation, but they have pointed out that Jökulsárlón is not a protected area.

As reported, the car was rented by a couple during their visit to Iceland. At some point after parking and getting out of their car, it rolled into and eventually sank into Jökulsárlón. The incident was witnessed by several visitors on the scene.

While no one was hurt in the incident, the couple in question did lose all their luggage, including their return airline tickets and their passports. It is unknown at the time of this writing how or if the couple were able to amend the situation.