The Glacier Girl Rescue, 20 Years Later

In 1992, Pat Epps of the Epps Aviation group at was part of a daring, chilly expedition to Greenland with the mission of recovering a Lockheed P-38 plane, now known as Glacier Girl, that had been marooned in the far north since 1942. The plane was part of the largest single forced landing of military aircraft, scattering eight planes across the ice in Greenland, and the journey to recover it can be read about here. It's fascinating.

After salvaging the plane's parts from a hole melted more than 250 feet down in the ice, providing those involved in the recovery the surreal chance to be inside a glacier, Epps and the Greenland Expedition Society brought the parts back to America and began a 10-year restoration process on the aircraft.

The journey began not in 1992, but in 1981. That was when Epps and his friend Richard Taylor decided they would start trying to recover the planes, inspired by a 1979 flight over Greenland. There had been a previous attempt to drill down to where Glacier Girl lay undisturbed in the ice in 1989, but it was not successful. It did help, though, and the following year brought the discovery of one of the other planes, but that one was in bad condition. Glacier Girl definitely needed some work after recovery, but was in pretty good shape from the start.

Today, Glacier Girl can fly and its 20th anniversary of recovery is being celebrated at the 2012 AirVenture, which is a big gathering for pilots of all kinds held annually in Oshkosh, Wis. Glacier Girl is a popular draw, not only because it looks impressive but because the effort to bring it back was so daunting. When it isn't dazzling crowds at air shows, it's part of a collection of legendary aircraft held by Rod Lewis in San Antonio, Texas.

Glacier Girl is able to wow crowds, impress people and provide a slice of history, though, because of the ambition and daring of Epps, as well as other Greenland Expedition Society members from all over the world--many of them hailing from Atlanta.