Discovery

• Main Author: Wilber, Tom
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Cornell University Press 2023
• Subjects: Mealy Mountains; Pivot; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501769641.003.0009

This chapter recounts how trapper Jim Goudie found the dismembered elements of a four-engine bomber that sat wedged at the base of a tree in the foothills of the Mealy Mountains. It describes the broken fuselage, with the rear section lying almost parallel with the starboard wing. Wires and hydraulic lines spilled from the gap, like tendons of a severed limb. Nearby, a man in an aviator suit, engulfed in a nimbus of respiratory vapor, wielded an ax against one of the splintered trees. The chapter reports that the last flight of Liberator 586 had ended at a tree that didn't budge. It notes that the impact came on the starboard wing, causing the plane to pivot with such force that the rear section snapped off after whipping against another tree. The chapter then investigates how the crew dug an encampment in the snow under the starboard wing and lined it with parachutes and sheepskin rugs they had bought as souvenirs in Iceland. It also examines how the crew of Liberator 586 had been stranded in the woods for four days with temperatures at night routinely falling below minus forty. With the news of the crew's survival, the chapter narrates that an American plane aiding in the search happened to fly over the crash site, and a spotter, finally, saw the men's signal fire.