A Spanish tourist, who was made pay EUR 800 (USD 900, ISK 100,000) by landowners for driving up to the Douglas DC-35 Super Dakota plane wreck on Sólheimasandur in South Iceland, is taking his case to the Spanish Consulate after the police dismissed his complaint.
The police reason that the landowners did not violate any laws with their conduct and therefore the tourist’s complaint won’t be taken any further, ruv.is reports.
Kjartan Magnússon, managing director of the car rental where the tourist hired the car, said he understands that landowners are tired of off-road driving and that the tourist should not have entered the area as it was clearly marked as closed for car traffic. However, the landowners should have behaved differently, he said.
The man drove through a gate on a fence which had been put up around the airplane. When he wanted to return, it had been locked. He called the police, who referred him to the landowners. They refused to unlock the gate unless the man paid EUR 800. The money was charged in a service center in the vicinity and the man was given a receipt which read ‘snowmobile tour.’
One of the landowners, Benedikt Bragason, farmer at Ytri-Sólheimar I, reasoned that the 11 landowners had previously agreed that the admission fee for driving to the plane wreck should be ISK 100,000 and that it had been natural to demand that the tourist pay the amount.
The environment around the plane wreck is under considerable strain. The Douglas DC-35 Super Dakota became popular after it was featured in in a music video by Justin Bieber and a film with Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan last year.
