HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii – A body believed to be that of a World War II airman, found frozen in the Sierra Nevada, arrived Monday in Hawaii for identification, officials said.

The body in an Army uniform was discovered earlier this month mostly encased in a glacier in Kings Canyon National Park. It had been thawing since last week at the coroner’s office in Fresno County.

The body was flown out of Travis Air Force Base to Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu. The examination, which will take several weeks at least, will be done by the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command.

An identification could solve part of a decades-old mystery – the disappearance of a navigational training plane that left a Sacramento airfield in November 1942 carrying a crew of four on a routine flight.

The pilot was 2nd Lt. William A Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio. The three aviation cadets aboard were aviation John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio; and Leo M. Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minn.