The British-funded Ice Patrol is usually busy in May, protecting shipping from rogue bergs. But it’s all gone alarmingly quiet this year, as Michael Park discovers Published: A mere 1,000 feet above the frigid waters of the North Atlantic the debate began in earnest. The pilot of the US Coast Guard’s sturdy C130 plane believed the object which had appeared on both of the plane’s radars was an iceberg. One of two young but experienced ice observers on board disagreed. To definitively identify the target, the plane started to descend to a mettle-testing 400 feet. This was part of the mission, and what is demanded of the staff of the International Ice Patrol (IIP) by the hundreds of ships that traverse this relatively small part of the ocean and rely on its findings for their safety. Ever since the Titanic struck what was actually one of more than 350 icebergs drifting amid the northern Atlantic shipping lanes in April, 1912, the US Coast Guard has undertaken annual iceberg patrols to help protect passenger and freight vessels that sail through the congested waters east of Canada and down the east coast of America. ‘Before we started […]