>>27720844A B17 which was on a recon mission in 1947 had engine troubles and crash landed on a dry lakebed in the middle of nowhere in Greenland, the crew survived by burning tires and rubber inflatable rafts to create a smoke signal.
The USAF never attempted to recover the aircraft because of extremely cold conditions and because the soil was way too soft in warmer temperatures for the plane to move without getting the landing gear stuck.
Fast forward to 1994, some time after the USAF officially released all claim to ownership of the aircraft. A team of individuals highly skilled in repair/restoration of old piston aircraft (the only people who have these skills in this time period) decide they want to salvage the aircraft for both monetary and spiritual purposes.
Several years of hard work and tough conditions go by. The lead mechanic died because he was working extremely hard trying to get the plane ready before temperatures got too warm so that the ground wouldn't cave in when the plane started rolling. He was taking painkillers and eventually had to be flown to a hospital where he later died of a blood clot. However they had tons of crucial issues, all of which they overcame.
As a final effort the guy who funded the project and wanted to make it happen returned at the beginning of the next winter to finish the job.
They got everything working, all engines running smooth, as they were taxing for takeoff, they hit several bumps and the APU broke free of its harness inside the airplane, it spilled gas and started a fire, and the center of the plane went up in flames, the fuselage broke in half.
The plane does not have a powered front wheel which means the only way to make it turn on the ground was to increase power of the engines on one side of the plane, so the plane had to move relatively quickly so that it would not get stuck in the snow.
