Posted on: Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Army team finds remains in Himalayas

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

A 14-person search-and-recovery team from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory returned to Hawai'i late last week with what are believed to be the remains of four U.S. service members whose

C-46 transport plane crashed in the Tibetan Himalayas in March 1944.

The aircraft was based at Sookerating, India, and reported missing in flight en route from Kunming, China, to its home base during World War II. It is believed the aircraft became lost, ran out of gas and crashed, the laboratory said. The wreckage was found on a cliff face above a ravine.

The lab team was in China for two months excavating the crash site at about 15,600 feet.

Near the end of the mission, a four-person team broke off and spent seven days climbing three 15,000-foot mountains en route to another C-46 crash site. There, the team gathered information to help lab researchers connect the site to three other missing American service members.

The remains recovered from the initial crash site were transported to the lab at Hickam Air Force Base, where an effort will be made to identify them.