Search for clues to identify airman found in ice
Forensic scientists at the Pentagon's office for missing soldiers are seeking to identify the body of a Second World War airman found in a California glacier last month.
The Hawaii-based experts have spent the last few weeks meticulously examining his bones, taking DNA samples, and studying his teeth to learn who he was and when he died.
"We want to be able to understand what happened to him fully," said Robert Mann, deputy scientific director of the lab identifying the remains.
"And we also want to be able to answer whatever questions the family may have about 'exactly what happened to my son, my brother."'
Mann and his colleagues believe the airman was one of four aboard a navigational training flight that disappeared after taking off from a California airfield on November 18, 1942.
So far they have determined the airman was Caucasian, in his early 20s, and stood between 5'9" and 6'2" . He had either light brown or sandy blond hair.
X-rays indicated he sustained massive trauma when his plane crashed.
