Remains on glacier thought to be airman’s

FRESNO, Calif. – Hikers discovered the remains of a man believed to be a missing World War II airman resting on top of a Sierra Nevada glacier not far from the spot where a missing aviation cadet’s body was found two years ago, authorities said Monday.

The second set of human remains was found in a high alpine region of Kings Canyon National Park on Wednesday, no more than 100 feet from where climbers spotted the ice-entombed body of Leo Mustonen in October 2005, park officials said.

An Idaho man was among four people aboard the plane.

Rangers located the second body exposed on a remote glacier resting among granite boulders, his undeployed parachute stenciled “US ARMY” just inches away.

“It looks like his head was just resting on the rock,” said Debbie Brenchley, the first ranger to spot the remains Friday after hikers reported the find. “You can see he has a wool sweater on, and a white collar and a ring on.”

The Fresno County coroner’s office is overseeing the retrieval of the remains, which were scheduled to arrive in Fresno on Monday night.

Military anthropologists plan to analyze the body, which they believe could be one of three men who was flying with Mustonen when their AT-7 navigational trainer plane disappeared after takeoff from a Sacramento, Calif., airfield Nov. 18, 1942.

A blizzard is believed to have caused the crash that killed Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minn., pilot 2nd Lt. William Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio, and two other aviation cadets, John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho, and Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio.

Military officials planned to notify families of the three missing men Monday, said Robert Mann, deputy scientific adviser for the Hawaii-based Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command.

The names of the three men’s relatives were not immediately released Monday.