Icelandair Flight 4553

**Icelandair Flight 4553** was a flight from Nyrmod International Airport to Keflavik International Airport. The plane eventually crashed halfway into the Atlantic Ocean on 29th April, 2013, killing all 206 passengers and 12 crew, meaning 218 people died. The plane was a Boeing 757-300.

**Cause of crash:** in flight breakup, exact cause disputed.

   The plane took off at 1:09 AM. The flight was delayed by 29 minutes due to bad weather. According to the investigation report made by Icelandic Aviation institution, the plane had no problems. It was delivered to Icelandair in 2003.

According to the investigation, the plane started to experience difficulties at around 1:49 AM. The plane was cruising at around 30 thousand feet. The plane later was reported to significantly gain and loose altitude. The plane dissapeared at 1:53 AM, after sending a distress call. The plane did not respond to the ATC, so it declared emergency. The Icelandic Coast Guard made a emergency and started to look for the plane. 2 days after the plane went missing, on 1st of May, the Icelandic Coast Guard announced that it had found the tail section of the airplane. The main part of the plane was found also at that day, but it was 1930 meters away, meaning that the plane broke up mid air. The left wing of the aircraft was found 700 meters away from the main debris. The left engine was never found. The right wings and its engine was still with the main debris. 211 bodies were recovered, with 7 missing. 89 of those bodies were never indentified.

**Reactions to the crash:**

The plane crash shcoked Iceland and Nyrmod. Makeshift memorials were created in both Nyrmod and Iceland. The president of Iceland at the time, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, declared 4 days of mourning. Nyrmodian Autonomous Goverment declared 7 days of mourning. A hashtag started to go viral around the world called #rememberthe218, mourning the 218 killed in the crash. It has been called as the ''blackest day in Icelandic and Nyrmodian history''. Icelandair offered to pay a compensasion of 80 thousand dollars per family **Black box recordings:**

The black box was recovered at 3rd May, 2013. Its recordings were published in 2017, with the actual audio. The pilots were Nyrmodian. First Officer 47 year old Nigel Biggins who was working for the airline for 20 years, and co-pilot Jacob Stewart Williams, who was 29 years old and worked for just under a year for the airline. It said:

Plane: **starts to go up violently**

Nigel: What the fuck? Why is it going up?

Jacob: Pull it down!

Nigel: Ugh, fuck!

Plane: **dives**

Nigel: HOLY SHIT

Jacob: We're dead!

Plane: **starts to break up**

Jacob: AAHHHH!

Nigel: FUCK!!!!!

Unknown: Climb, climb

Unknown: SHIT!

Plane: **hits the water, recording ends with the sound of impact**

The voice recorder was damaged badly, so it was in bad quality.

**Passengers:**

Iceland: 45

Nyrmod (ethnically): 144

China: 21

United States: 3

Latvia: 3

Romania: 2

**Conclusion:**

The cause is disputed. Iceland claims its due to ''in flight breakup caused by a pilot error'', while United States claims that it is due to ''mechanical failure due to faulty repairs, casuing a in flight breakup''. Both countries disagree with their claims, and had tense relations, normalizing them in 2015.

**Theories:**

Many suggest the plane was actually shot down by a missile by NATO forces. In the same day and night, NATO had a excersize that day in the same area. They also suggest that the plane diverted out of its course, however the NATO forces did not warn the pilots. They claim that it hit the left wing, causing serious damage. The plane later would broke up mid air. NATO, Iceland and United States disagrees with the theory, claiming that the plane was not in the restricted airspace.

**Crash site now:**

The crash site now was forced to be a restricted zone for boats, due to people picking up the floating wreckage. In 2019, a family of 4 in Mizrab found 2 seats of the aircraft. They took it to the Icelandic Aviation instituion, and were awarded 10 thousand dollars. Many scuba divers have searched the wreckage illegally. 15% of the wreckage is still under water. 7 bodies are missing in the site too.