The wreckage of a US military plane missing during World War II has been located in the Himalayas in India, 77 years after the plane crashed and killed its 13 passengers.

The perilous search for the craft cost the lives of three guides.

The C-46 was coming from Kunming in southern China when it was caught in a storm over a mountainous area in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in January 1945. never heard of this aircraft.

He had simply disappeared,” said American Clayton Kuhles, founding president of the non-governmental organization MIA Recoveries, which led the search, commissioned by the son of one of the passengers, this week.

No bodies found

Clayton Kuhles and his team of local ethnic Lisu guides faced extreme conditions in the mountains, sometimes having to cross deep-water rivers and camp in freezing temperatures at high altitudes.

Last September, three of these guides died of hypothermia, in the initial phase of the expedition, while camping in the middle of a snowstorm.

Last month, the team finally discovered the wreckage of the plane on top of a snow-capped mountain, where it could be identified by its number still visible on the tail of the aircraft.

No remains of passengers were found there.

26 military planes found for 20 years

Clayton Kuhles was assigned by Bill Scherer, son of an officer on board the plane. “All I can say is that I'm overjoyed just to know where he is. It's both sad and joyful," Bill Scherer said by email from New York. “I grew up without a father. I only think of my poor mother, on receiving the telegram informing her that her husband had disappeared and that she was left alone with me, a 13-month-old baby,” he added.

Hundreds of US military aircraft disappeared from the theater of operations in India, China and Burma during World War II.

While hostile fire from Japanese forces caused some aircraft losses, according to Clayton Kuhles, the majority were damaged by encountering ice, hurricane-force winds and other extreme weather conditions.

His organization MIA Recoveries, a specialist in researching US Air Force aircraft, has found since its founding in early 2000, 26 aircraft that have been missing for decades, representing 266 personnel on the official MIA (missing in action) list. , according to its website.

World

Greece: Wreck of Italian WWII submarine found off Mykonos

World

Norway: The wreckage of a gigantic German warship has been found off the coast

  • India

  • Disappearance

  • United States

  • Crash

  • Second World War

  • Airplane

  • World

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on Twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print