Switzerland Misfortune Plane Gauligletscher, 1946 (b/w photo)

A search party at a briefing on the missing US Air Force plane on the Gauligletscher, a Dakota (Douglas DC-3) with twelve persons on board, in November 1946. The plane crashed on November 18, 1946 on the way from Munich to Marseille over the Alps. Two Swiss military pilots, Victor Hug and Pista Hitz, land their Fieseler Storch aircraft near the wreck on the glacier and fly the passengers down to the valley. The event is groundbreaking for rescue flying in the Alps. It is the impetus for further missions of the air force for rescue purposes and for the later establishment of the Swiss Air Rescue Rega in April 1952.