Melting glacier reveals wreckage from 1963 plane crash
Wednesday 9th September 2026 on 18:01 in
Switzerland
Melting ice at the Hüfifirngletscher glacier has exposed aircraft wreckage more than 60 years after a crash, SRF reported. A mountaineer found several parts, which the Uri cantonal police said had been released by the retreating glacier.
The Swiss Safety Investigation Board confirmed that the pieces were aircraft light-alloy components. The aircraft could not be identified with certainty because key parts, including the engine, were missing. However, the wreckage is highly likely to belong to a plane that crashed there in 1963.
The parts were recovered last Thursday in an operation organised by the investigation board. A private helicopter company, another private transport company, the Uri cantonal police and the Swiss Air Force mountain detachment took part.
The recovered wreckage will be professionally disposed of by a recycling company. The parts had not been recovered after the accident because crashes in difficult-to-reach Alpine terrain were not unusual at the time, given the limited technical resources available.
Two crashes in May 1963
Several aviation accidents occurred at the Hüfifirngletscher near the Clariden Pass between Uri and Glarus in May 1963, according to the investigation board’s report database.
On May 9, a pilot and a passenger crashed in a light aircraft made by Champion. Neither was injured. The following day, an attempt to recover that aircraft led to another crash involving a Piper Super Cub. Again, nobody was injured.
Further attempts to recover both aircraft by helicopter took place on May 21 and 22. The Champion aircraft was transported to Mollis airfield in the canton of Glarus on May 22. The Piper aircraft could not be recovered.
On May 21, the wreckage became caught in the snow, overturned and struck the helicopter’s right wing. The operation failed the next day when the load began swinging heavily during take-off. The pilot released the wreckage, which fell hundreds of metres.
Hikers who find wreckage or other unusual objects on a glacier or in Alpine terrain are asked to mark the location as precisely as possible and inform the Uri cantonal police. They should avoid touching or moving the objects.