A search squad from the US Coastguard has discovered the remnants of a plane that went down in Greenland during WWII. According to a report published by the New York Times, the team found the grounded US Grumman Duck aircraft near Koge Bay on the southeast coast of the North Atlantic territory, almost seven decades after it went down with three US troops onboard.
Military officials said the wreck will be unearthed and that the remains of all three servicemen will be returned to their families in the United States.
The find comes after nearly two years of search efforts by the US Coastguard and private search firm North South Polar Inc. Officials said they were hoping to find the wreck before the last of the victims’ families had passed on.
Eighty-nine-year-old Nancy Pritchard Morgan, whose brother was onboard the rescue aircraft when it went down, said that the discovery had answered her prayers.
The Grumman Duck crashed in 1942 as it was trying to traverse a major snowstorm in Comanche Bay, Greenland. A US military aircraft spotted the wreckage days later and reported no signs of survivors.
Previous efforts to locate the crash, including a major Coastguard search in 2010, were unsuccessful.
Thrilled!