the wreckage of a crashed plane in 1968 was finally found in a glacier

The wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Swiss Alps in 1968 has been discovered on a glacier more than 54 years later, police said on Friday (August 5th). The remains of the device appeared on the Aletsch glacier in the south-west of the canton of Wallis, near the peaks of Jungfrau and Monch. The Valais police said the wreckage had been found the day before.

“Investigations have determined that the parts are from the wreckage of a Piper Cherokee, registration HB-OYL, which crashed at this location on June 30, 1968. Recovery work will be undertaken as soon as possible”the statement said.

On Konkordiaplatz (Place de la Concorde), a place called the famous glacier straddling Bern and Valais, a plane wreckage was discovered due to melting ice. https://t.co/26mgDNmZfz

— 20 minutes (@20minutesOnline) August 5, 2022

The regional newspaper 24 Heures specifies that on board were a teacher, a chief doctor and his son, all from Zurich. Their bodies had been found at the time, but not the wreckage. “At the time of the accident, more than fifty years ago, the technical means to recover aircraft wreckage in difficult terrain were limited”adds the font.

The daily reports that it was a mountain guide who discovered the wreckage during an expedition in the area. Due to climate change and the melting of the glacier, the route has changed and now passes where the plane pieces were found. “We don’t know if the wreckage was under the ice or just covered in snow”, explains a refuge guard, quoted by 20 Minutes . “The debris is scattered within a radius of about 200 meters.”