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A modified F-150 truck that went through the Kitikmeot ice during a global expedition’s trial run in March has been recovered, the group says.
The Transglobal Car Expedition lost the truck on its return from Resolute Bay to Yellowknife while scouting a route it intends to use as part of a round-the-world drive in 2024.
On Wednesday, the expedition team said divers floated the truck – which sank near Nunavut’s Tasmania Islands – using airbags before a helicopter airlifted the vehicle to Gjoa Haven.
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The vehicle is almost certainly too corroded to be salvaged, the team said in a news release.
“This recovery operation was never about getting a truck back. It was about doing the right thing and respecting the land,” stated Andrew Comrie-Picard, a Canadian member of the expedition.
The Transglobal team – which also includes both Russian and Ukrainian members – had to a dramatic introduction to the North in March. When the group’s Russian-chartered jet landed in Yellowknife, it violated a newly imposed ban on such aircraft in Canadian airspace following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Separately, the expedition faced criticism ahead of its trial run for a lack of communication with local and Indigenous governments along its proposed route. Then the truck fell through the ice, raising environmental concerns among nearby Inuit residents.
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Transglobal has used its bid to rescue the truck as a chance to make a good second impression, given the necessity of crossing the same land in 2024 to complete its planned round-the-world voyage.
In recent news releases, the expedition has emphasized its hiring of Inuit workers to help recover the F-150 and pledged to practise environmental responsibility.
“The recovery team left the site in pristine condition, with the determined intentions of preserving the fragile Arctic ecosystem,” Wednesday’s news release stated.
