Glacier tourists rescued from a blizzard: over 300 people took part in the rescue - “we clearly made a mistake”

39 tourists, including several children, needed to be rescued after taking a snowmobile trip to Langjökull glacier last Wednesday . Icelandic search and rescue teams responded quickly to the distress all and over 200 hundred people took part in the rescue operation. Some of the people, whom most where tourists, sustained injuries from frostbite. The youngest child in the group was 6 years old. A severe weather warning was issued long before the snowmobile tour began. Local police are now investigating the matter.

According to the Icelandic search and rescue the operation went well and there where no casualties. The weather conditions where difficult and people had to stay in the storm for several hours. A weather warning had already been issued by the Icelandic meteorological office, still the tour company continued with the planned trip.

A journalist, from the local newspaper Fréttablaðið, contacted Mountaineers of Iceland, the company responsible for the trip, to get a comment. The company said it did not wanted to comment and told the journalist to shut the hell up when he tried to ask further questions. Later the company said it clearly made a mistake by taking the tourists to the glacier in those weather conditions.

Local police in the area has already interviewed most of the survivors and the matter is now being investigated. Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir, minister for tourism in Iceland, said that the company that planed the trip was responsible, no one else.