A team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command was expected to head into the Ko'olau Range by helicopter yesterday to attempt to recover the remains of a Navy aviator who crashed on June 15, 1944.

The nine-member team will excavate a steep ravine near the H-3 tunnel entrance where Ensign Harry Warnke's F-6F Hellcat fighter crashed during a series of aerial training dives.

The 23-year-old Navy reservist took off from Barbers Point Naval Air Station with seven other planes to practice dive-bombing at Kapoho Point close to what is now the Marine Corps base at Kane'ohe Bay.

When Warnke didn't return, it was presumed that he crashed. Two days later, his unit identified the site. A June 19, 1944 U. S. Pacific Fleet report said a "piece of left leg was buried at scene of crash."

It wasn't until 1999 that recovery personnel spotted remnants of the aircraft in an aerial search.

After addressing cultural and environmental issues, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will now mount a minimally invasive search, an official said.

A helicopter will fly in the team in three sorties. Because the location is difficult to work at, soil to be sifted for remains and possessions will be sling-loaded to a spot near Wheeler Army Air Field for inspection.

Maj. Brian DeSantis, of the accounting command based at Hickam Air Force Base, said the first load of soil is expected to be removed on Monday.

A recovery planned for October of last year was postponed until now pending an environmental approval.

Surviving relatives of the airman have said the family bought a headstone for Warnke so he could be buried next to his parents in Westville, Ind.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.