plane wreck World War II what was lost has been found in the Himalayas, India, after 77 years of falling with no survivors.
The C-46 transport plane carrying 13 people from Kunming, China, was reported to have disappeared during a storm over the mountainous state of Arunachal Pradesh in 1945.
“This plane was never heard of again. It just disappeared,” said Clayton Kuhles, the United States adventurer who led the search mission, as quoted from AFP, Friday (21/1).
The plane was found after Bill Scherer, one of the victims’ sons, requested a search. It took the search team months to carry out the expedition.
Search teams had to wade through chest-deep rivers and camp in freezing temperatures at high altitudes.
As a result of the search, three guides died of hypothermia while camping in a snow storm last September.
But the team eventually found the plane atop a snow-covered mountain last month, identifying the debris by tail number.
There were no traces of humans among the wreckage of the plane.
“All I can say is I’m very happy, just knowing where he is. It’s sad but exciting,” Scherer told AFP.
“I grew up without a father. All I can think about is my poor mother, who got a telegram and found out her husband was missing and left with me who was then 13 months old,” she said.
Reportedly, hundreds of US military aircraft went missing near theaters of operations in India, China and Myanmar during World War II.
A large number of the planes were then believed to have been brought down by ice, hurricanes and other adverse weather conditions.
(blq / bac)
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