Body believed to be of WWll airman’s removed from glacier
An ice-encased body believed to be a World War II airman
who crashed in 1942 was chipped out of a Sierra Nevada glacier and taken to a laboratory for
identification , a deputy coroner said.
As the frozen body thaws, a picture is emerging –a fair-haired man in an Army uniform who suffered broken bones when his aircraft crashed in the wilderness, forensic experts said on Thursday.
Soft tissues like skin and muscle have been well-preserved ,as well as the man’s sun-bleached hair and his uniform, which identifies him as a World War II-era serviceman , officials said.
There’s a very good possibility for Identification, said Paul Emanovsky, a forensic anthropologist with the Hawaii-based Joint Prisoner of War Accounting Command, which recovers and identifies missing military personnel .|The identification process could take months.
Blustery weather kept rangers at Kings Canyon National Park from reaching the frozen
remains for two days after ice climbers reported last weekend they had seen a man’s head, shoulder and arm protruding from the thick ice
About 80% of the body was buried in the glacier on 13,710-foot Mount Mendel. The area can be reached only by hiking two or three days, or by helicopter when the weather allows.
Six park rangers and a military forensics expert started chipping away at the ice on Wednesday, freeing the body after about six hours, said ranger |Alexandra Picavet.
The ice initially wasn’t bad to dig through, but then as they got deeper it became more difficult, said Picavet, who wasn’t among who excavated the remains.
The crew had to be careful not to damage the remains and worked slowly because they didn’t know how the body was positioned, Picavet said The remains were then flown to the Fresno County Coroner’s department
Park officials summoned JPAC because the man was wearing a parachute stenciled with Army .They believe he may be a crewman of an AT-7 navigational training plane that crashed November18, 1942. .