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

A Fieseler stork plane will be equipped with snow runners at the airfield in Unterbach near Meiringen for landing on the Gauligletscher. On November 19, 1946, an American military aircraft, a Douglas C-53 Dakota (military version of the DC-3), crashed onto the glacier with twelve people on board. All passengers involved in an accident can be rescued alive after an elaborate rescue operation. The two Swiss military pilots Victor Hug and Pista Hitz bring the accident victims to safety with two Fieseler Storch aircraft of the Swiss Army at the airfield Unterbach near Meiringen. This mission is the birth of the flying mountain rescue. At the Unterbach airfield near Meiringen, the snow runners are mounted on the aircraft.