Glacier Girl, the Lost Squadron, and the P-38 Lightning They Dug Out From Under Two Hundred Sixty-Eight Feet of Greenland Ice
How Glacier Girl, a P-38 abandoned on Greenland's ice cap in 1942, was recovered from 268 feet of ice and flown again in 2002.
Glacier Girl is a P-38 Lightning that crash-landed on the Greenland ice cap in July 1942 as part of the “Lost Squadron,” was buried under 268 feet of glacial ice, and was finally recovered in 1992 and restored to flying condition. She took to the air again in 2002 - 60 years after she was abandoned - and has since appeared on the warbird line at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It remains one of the most remarkable aircraft recovery and restoration stories in aviation history.
What Was the Lost Squadron?
In July 1942, eight brand-new aircraft were being ferried across the North Atlantic to the war in Europe under Operation Bolero - a plan to fly fighters over the top of the world through Greenland and Iceland rather than ship them across seas patrolled by German U-boats.
The formation consisted of six P-38 Lightnings and two B-17 Flying Fortresses, all factory-fresh. They launched from Greenland bound for Iceland, but the weather closed in hard: dropping ceilings, lost visibility, and ice building on the wings.
Unable to climb above it or find a break, the flight leader turned the formation back toward Greenland. But the field there had vanished into the same whiteout. With fuel running low, the crews faced the hardest decision in aviation - put eight new combat aircraft down on a glacier, on purpose.
Did Anyone Survive the Crash Landings?
Yes. All 25 men survived. The P-38 pilots were instructed to belly-land gear-up to avoid flipping on the soft snow. The first pilot lowered his gear out of instinct and nosed over onto the aircraft’s propellers - a lesson the others watched unfold. The rest came in belly-down, skidding across the ice at better than 100 mph.
Not a single crew member was lost in the landings. The men sheltered in the fuselage of one B-17, burning what they could for heat, and survived nine days on the ice cap before being rescued by dog sled and by air.
The aircraft, however, stayed behind.
How Deep Was Glacier Girl Buried in the Ice?
Season after season, snow fell and compressed into solid glacial ice, swallowing the abandoned aircraft. They didn’t rust or get stripped - they sank, drifting sideways as the glacier itself flowed.
Search expeditions began in the 1960s, but crews repeatedly landed on the ice, dug, and found nothing. The glacier had moved the wreckage and buried it far deeper than anyone estimated.
It wasn’t until 1988 that a team using ground-penetrating radar finally got hard metal echoes - and the depth stopped hearts. The aircraft lay 268 feet beneath the surface, deeper underground than most skyscrapers are tall, after 46 years of accumulating ice.
How Do You Recover a Plane From 268 Feet of Ice?
Not with a shovel. The recovery team built a device they nicknamed a “thermal meltdown generator” - essentially a hot-water probe that melted a vertical shaft straight down through the glacier. A diver was then lowered by harness into a cavern of meltwater and blue ice to reach the aircraft below.
The first P-38 they reached was crushed flat by the immense weight of the ice; a B-17 was folded like a tin can. But they kept melting shafts until they found one Lightning that had ridden it out - dinged and cracked, but with its center section, booms, and basic airframe recoverable.
In 1992, she was disassembled and hauled up the narrow shaft in pieces, emerging into Greenland daylight for the first time since 1942. The recovery team named her Glacier Girl.
How Was Glacier Girl Restored to Flying Condition?
The restoration took place in a shop in Middlesboro, Kentucky, where a team spent roughly ten years doing what many said was impossible. They straightened bent structure, fabricated missing parts, and rebuilt both Allison V-1710 engines - twelve cylinders apiece.
On a day in the fall of 2002 - 60 years after she slid to a stop on the glacier - Glacier Girl took off and flew again under her own power. Grown warbird veterans have admitted to tears watching an aircraft that spent half a century entombed in ice roar down a runway.
Why Glacier Girl Belongs at Oshkosh
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, held each July at Wittman Regional Airport in Wisconsin, is where aircraft that “shouldn’t exist anymore” are seen, heard, and touched. Glacier Girl has been one of those aircraft on the warbird line.
The P-38’s distinctive twin-boom silhouette earned it the German nickname the “fork-tailed devil.” But this particular Lightning carries a second story layered on top of the war story - the story of the ice, and of the people who refused for decades to let her stay buried.
Most of the Lost Squadron’s other aircraft remain in the glacier, still drifting hundreds of feet down. Every so often, someone talks of going back to recover another. Perhaps one day another ghost will fly again.
Key Takeaways
- Glacier Girl is a P-38 Lightning from the “Lost Squadron” of eight aircraft (six P-38s and two B-17s) that crash-landed on Greenland’s ice cap in July 1942 during Operation Bolero.
- All 25 crew members survived the landings and spent nine days on the ice before rescue.
- The aircraft were buried under 268 feet of glacial ice and located via ground-penetrating radar in 1988, then recovered using a hot-water melting probe in 1992.
- Restoration in Middlesboro, Kentucky took about ten years, and Glacier Girl flew again in the fall of 2002, 60 years after she was lost.
- Most of the other Lost Squadron aircraft remain entombed in the glacier to this day.
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