A World War II plane crash site discovered last fall has now turned up the remains of three missing British airmen and one member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who all disappeared some 71 years earlier during training exercises off Vancouver Island.
The Avro Anson twin-engine aircraft, which disappeared on Oct. 30, 1942, was discovered by a logging crew last October on a mountain near Port Renfrew,
Canada Journal News of the World reported.
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"They came across some debris in the forest, and they figured it was a plane crash," Michael Pegg of Teal-Jones Cedar Products Ltd., whose engineers made the discovery,
told The Canadian Press.
"There were wheels, the engine of the plane, mangled plane parts. There was a boot, shoes, and a jacket," Pegg added.
The loggers proceeded to dig at the site to recover some identification information of the missing airmen, which they gave to Canada's Department of National Defense. The agency, accompanied by the British Columbia Coroner's Service, subsequently visited the site and initiated a recovery effort.
Due to the fast-approaching harsh winter, weather conditions reportedly delayed the dig on the site until last month.
"In May of this year, members of the Coroner's Service as well as a number of specialists from National Defence went into the area and performed a very, thorough recovery effort," Regional Coroner Matt Brown told Canada Journal News of the World.
A coroner and a forensic anthropologist were able to identify the remains of the four men, according to The Canadian Press, who were identified as Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. William Baird, Pilot Officer Charles Fox, Pilot Officer Anthony Lawrence, and Sgt. Robert Luckock of the British Air Force.
According to Brown, family members of Baird have been tracked down in Alberta, while British officials are still searching for loved ones of the other three British airmen.
"It touches your heart when you realize there are these families that have been out there not knowing what has happened to their siblings for all these years," Pegg added. "Hopefully this will be able to provide some closure to them."
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