Melting ice uncovers wreckage of U.S. plane

LONDON — After an emergency landing on a Swiss glacier, the group of 12 Americans drank melted snow and survived on rations of one chocolate bar a person until daring pilots shuttled them to safety after five days marooned on the ice.

Relics of that harrowing adventure and the successful rescue of all those onboard, including an 11-year-old girl and the captain’s mother, resurfaced after 70 years this month when scorching summer temperatures in Europe caused the glacial ice to recede.

The melting uncovered a large part of the wreckage of the U.S. Air Force transport plane, including a wing and items from the cabin, like canned food and clothes hangers.

Parts of the C-53 aircraft, also known as a Dakota, had already been discovered over the past 20 years. But the heat waves washing over much of the continent this year, which many have linked to climate change, have permitted the retrieval of many more artifacts that recount the death-defying story of the 1946 flight.

The plane had been heading to Marseille, in the south of France, from Munich, carrying American officers and family members. The pilot, Capt. Ralph Tate, found himself navigating among snowy peaks in turbulent weather and was forced to make a risky landing on the glacier to avoid crashing.

One passenger, a sergeant, broke his knee in the crash, but the others had relatively minor injuries. Snow covered the plane and formed a kind of igloo that helped them survive, Swiss rescuers said, adding that the plane had “miraculously missed a crevice 250 feet wide and 50 feet deep.”

The rescue operation was extensive. About 150 U.S. troops stationed in Italy arrived in the village of Meiringen, at the foot of the glacier, to climb the mountain in search of survivors.

But it was two Swiss pilots who became the mission’s heroes, flying German-made reconnaissance planes fitted with skis to land on the ice and pick up the stranded Americans. The planes could carry only two of the stranded passengers at a time, however, so numerous gut-wrenching trips were needed to transport everyone to safety.

The operation — the first time the Swiss air force used planes to carry out a mountain rescue — became a milestone in Swiss aviation history.

The survival of everyone onboard after the plane careened into a glacier at 170 mph continues to amaze experts.