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Lichter backward and would have had an unobstructed view into the fjord The terrain ahead of the Kondor was broken ground, with ice-carved hillocks as sharp as daggers The plane’s undercarriage would collapse the instant they touched down, and the rock would shred the aircraft’s skin as easily as paper

“Are you sure?” he shouted back

“Yes, sir It was on the edge of the glacier I could see it in thethere”

Without power, Lichter the plane He was certain that if he tried it out in the open, he and his two re on a glacier wouldn’t be a picnic either, but at least there was a chance they would walk away

Hethe plane caused the wing surfaces to lose lift The altian to spin backward twice as fast as when he wasLichtermann could do about it It was simple physics

The big aircraft carved through the sky, co The lacier from Lichterht ht, because, at the in white, a patch of glacial ice at least aKessler had spotted, but it didn’t matter The ice hat he focused on

It rose gently fro to fall from a cleft in the side of the mountain, a near-vertical wall of ice that was so thick it appeared blue in the uncertain light A few s fjord

The Kondor was sinking fast Lichtermann barely had the altitude to turn the plane one last tilacier They dropped below the lacially shaped rock appeared less than an artip The ice, which looked sher the closer they fell toward it, like small waves that had been flash-frozen Lichterear If one strut was torn off when they hit, the plane would cartwheel and tear itself apart

“Hang on,” he said His throat was so dry the words caht croak

Ernst had climbed from his position and had strapped hiht deck with Lichterlowed milky white There were no s nearby, so the inside of the aircraft was pitch-black At hearing the pilot’s terse warning, Kessler bent double, wrapping his hands around the back of his neck and cla his knees with his elbows, as he’d been trained

Prayers tumbled from his lips

The Kondor struck the glacier with a glancing blow, rose a dozen feet, and then caainst the ice was like a train racing through a tunnel Kessler was thrown violently against his safety straps but didn’t dare uncurl himself fro with a jarring bu froan to spin, shedding parts in chunks

He didn’t knoas better, being alone in the hull of the plane and not knoas happening outside or being in the cockpit and seeing the Kondor come apart

There was a crash belohere Kessler huddled, and a blast of frigid air shot through the fuselage The Plexiglas protecting the forward gunner’s position had been bloard Chunks of ice that were being shaved off the glacier whirled through the plane, and, still, it felt like they were not slowing

Then ca explosion of torn h-octane aviation fuel Kessler knehat had happened One of the wings had dug into the ice and had been sheared off Though Lichterh remained in the lines to make the threat of fire a very real one