The wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Swiss Alps in 1968 was discovered in a glacier, more than 54 years after the accident, due to the thaw in that region, the police and the media revealed this Friday.
The remains of the aircraft were found on the Aletsch glacier in the southwest of the canton of Wallis, near the peaks of Jungfrau and Monch.
Valais police said the wreckage was found on Thursday.
“Investigations have determined that the pieces are from the wreckage of a Piper Cherokee, registration HB-OYL, which crashed at this location on June 30, 1968. Recovery work will be carried out as soon as possible,” police explained in a statement.
The regional newspaper 24 Heures reported that on board were a professor, a doctor and his son, all from Zurich.
The bodies were found at the time, but not the wreckage.
“At the time of the accident, more than fifty years ago, the technical means to recover the wreckage of the aircraft in difficult terrain were limited”, added the police.
The same regional newspaper reported that it was a mountain guide who discovered the wreckage during an expedition in that area.
Due to climate change and the melting of the glacier, the route has changed and now passes through where the pieces of the plane were found.