The Story of WWII P-38 Lightning Discovered Buried 268 Feet in Greenland Ice After 50 Years

In 1942, a squadron of six P-38 Lightning fighters and two B-17 bombers made emergency landings on a Greenland ice field during a mission en route to Britain. One of those aircraft, later dubbed Glacier Girl, stayed buried under approximately 268 feet of ice for decades. In 1992, a bold recovery effort brought it back to the surface. Here’s how that remarkable story unfolded.

A Miraculous Rescue After Five Decades

On July 15, 1942, poor weather forced the P-38s and B-17s to land on the ice. The crews were rescued, but the planes were abandoned and slowly buried as snow and ice drifted over them. Over fifty years later, the Greenland Expedition Society, backed by Kentucky businessman Roy Shoffner, launched multiple attempts to locate and recover one fighter. The team, led by Patt Epps, Richard Taylor, and expedition leader Bob Cardin, faced thirteen failed efforts before finally reaching Glacier Girl in 1992.

To reach the buried Lightning, the team engineered a device known as the “Super Gopher,” a metal cone passed heated water through so it could melt a vertical shaft through the ice, nearly 27 stories deep. Workers descended in cramped 4‑foot-wide shafts that took 20 minutes each time. Once the team reached the aircraft, they worked to remove the 3-ton fuselage section by section. The final segment surfaced on August 1, 1992.

Restoration to Flight

Despite concerns that the glacier would crush the aircraft, many original parts survived. The team estimated a two-year rebuild, but it took a full decade. By October 26, 2002, Glacier Girl taxied down the runway for its first public flight since 1942, its engines roaring back to life. About 80 percent of the original parts—engines, props, guns—remained intact. It even retains the only complete working set of P-38 machine guns.

In 2006, Rod Lewis purchased the restored aircraft, which now flies under the Air Legends Foundation. Glacier Girl has appeared at air shows across the U.S. and was displayed at the Lone Star Flight Museum near Houston in late 2023 and early 2024.Its remarkable recovery and flight captures public imagination, offering a rare glimpse of WWII aviation preserved through ingenuity, dedication, and grit.