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 remains of the device appeared on the Aletsch glacier in the south-west of the canton of Wallis, near the peaks of Jungfrau and Monch.
Valais police said the wreckage 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.
Discovery possible with global warming
The regional newspaper 24 Heures specifies that on board were a teacher, a chief doctor and his son, all from Zurich.
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," added the police.
24 Hours reports that it was a high mountain guide who discovered the wreckage during an expedition in the area.
Due to climate change and the melting of the glacier, the route has changed and now passes where the plane pieces were found.
“We don't know if the wreckage was under the ice or just covered in snow.
The debris is scattered within a radius of around 200m,” an official told 20 Minutes.