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.
The wreck appeared on the Aletsch glacier in the southwest of the canton of Valais, near the peaks of Jungfrau and Monch. Valais police said it was found on Thursday.
“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,” police said in a statement.
The regional newspaper 24 Heures reported that a teacher, a doctor and his son, all from Zurich, had been on board the plane when it crashed. 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,” the police explained.
According to 24 Hours, the wreckage was discovered by a mountain guide during an expedition in the area. Due to climate change and the melting of the glacier, the route had changed and now passed by the site where the plane parts were found.
