In 1973 a United States Navy plane crash landed on a beach in Southern Iceland.

The wreckage was abandoned where it fell and the debris of the aircraft on the black sand is now an eerily dramatic sight.

The plane came down on  a stretch of beach known in Icelandic as Sólheimasandur. It’s not far from the mighty Skógafoss waterfall- a few hours drive from Reykjavik- but to find the wreckage you’ll have to take things off road.

Hidden by the dunes, the fuselage appears out of nowhere when you drive down the rough and rocky beach from the main road.

The mountain back drop and black sand give the site an otherworldly look.

No one was killed in the crash- fairly unbelievable when you see the state of the cockpit.

Iceland’s extreme elements are slowly eroding the wreckage, and rumour has it that a local farmer took the tailplane to make a quick buck.

You can climb all the way inside the plane. Just watch out for the jagged, rusting metal that comes with most plane wrecks.

The plane wreck can be tricky to find. There’s no signs to lead you there, but if you follow the great photo instructions here then you won’t miss it!

And here’s a rough map to the wreck as well, just for you:

Richard Collett

Iceland is an incredible country. You can read about the naturally occurring geysers here.