One person is dead and another injured after a group of tourists were trapped in an ice cave collapse on an Icelandic glacier. Initially, two others were thought to be missing, prompting an intense rescue operation. However, police now report that this confusion was caused by shoddy information provided by the tour organizer.
On August 25, a group of what was believed to be 25 tourists were visiting the area as part of a guided tour of the Breiðamerkurjökli glacier, a major attraction known for its lagoons, waterfalls, and ice caves. Breiðamerkurjökli is an outlet glacier of the larger Vatnajökull glacier, the second largest ice cap in Europe.
Later that day, police in Iceland’s Suðurlandi region reported on social media that four people were struck by ice. Two of them, identified by police as an American couple, were later found. One of the pair, a male, was pronounced dead at the scene. The survivor, a female, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Reykjavik, where their condition is stable.
Initially, it was believed that two others were still missing. However, in an update issued on August 26, police clarified that this was incorrect. The group actually consisted of 23 people, and no one else was unaccounted for. No information on the missing tourists could be found in the organizer’s books.
“It seems clear that registration for the trip and outside maintenance were not accurate as well as misleading information about the number of people on the trip,” police said on social media. “The police field manager located at the scene announced that all the ice that was thought to have fallen on the people had been moved. It has come to light that no one [is trapped] under the ice. As a result, it is clear that only 23 people were on this hike yesterday.”
“The rescue operation is now complete and the search has been called off,” the police field manager added.
The initial reports of missing people triggered a significant rescue operation. Authorities told Icelandic media outlet RUV that, despite mild weather, getting equipment to the scene was proving to be challenging, and the search was “more or less all done by hand.” As nightfall approached, police said conditions had become too treacherous to continue, but the operation resumed at 7 a.m. local time on August 26. Police did not identify any of the tourists involved, saying only that they were from “several nationalities.” An investigation into the cause of the collapse is underway.
The incident is sparking a debate over Iceland’s ice cave tourism industry. Garðar Sigurjónsson, vice-chairman of the Icelandic Mountain Guides Association, told RUV that more stringent regulations are needed to determine when trips to the glacier can be made, and noted that Vatnajökull National Park officials have no way to keep people from entering Breiðamerkurjökli. Vatnajökull is Europe’s second largest national park and is home to some of Iceland’s most famous glaciers.
There is no evidence to suggest that the ice cave collapse was connected to recent volcanic activity, which has resulted in half a dozen eruptions since November, including one last week. Those eruptions occurred near the town of Grindavik, 150 miles (240 kilometers) west of the national park.
In 2006, a German man was killed when the roof of an ice cave in central Iceland collapsed while he was inside. In 2018, a geophysics professor issued a warning that some ice caves could be dangerous due to poisonous gasses released by geothermal heating.
