On November 18, 1942, an AT-7 navigational training plane left Mather Airfield in Sacramento, California, carrying four airmen (the pilot and three cadets) and about five hours of fuel. The plane never returned. 

Although authorities searched for over a month, no sign of the plane was ever found until November 1947 when the wreckage was discovered by hikers on Darwin Glacier in the Sierra Nevada. The hikers, however, did not find the bodies of any of the airmen. They were 2nd Lt. William A Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio (pilot) and the three cadets, Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio; John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; and Leo M. Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minn.

In October 2005, two ice climbers discovered the remains of one of the airmen. As reported by CBS News: the climbers told authorities that they saw "a frozen head, shoulder and arm while climbing the glacier on the side of 13,710-foot Mount Mendel in the Sierra Nevada on Sunday [October 16].... The body was 80 percent encased in ice, and still wearing an Army-issued parachute. Officials say the man's torn sweater reveals skin, and parts of his sandy-blonde hair are still intact."

When the body was found, information about the 1942 crash was so sketchy that various news organizations reported that the bodies of four airmen had been found in 1947 (when the wreckage was discovered). They also indicated that a body (the one discovered in 2005) had been missed in 1947. These reports were erroneous, however, since no bodies were ever recovered from the crash until 2005. Only four people were on board the AT-7.

The remains of the unknown airman were flown to Hawaii where investigators at the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base examined the body and its related items. By February 2006, the remains had been identified as Airman Leo M. Mustonen. According to TMC.net, "Mustonen, who had no survivors from his mother's side to provide the right kind of DNA, was identified primarily through elimination.... The other three men had siblings who provided DNA, which didn't match. Infrared analysis of a corroded name tag found on outer garments also gleaned a few letters that matched Mustonen's name."

Wire services referred to Mustonen as "a mummified human time capsule" with his Sheaffer fountain pen and a 1942 coin in his pocket.

He was buried on March 25, 2006, in a grave next to his mother's. His two nieces, Mary Ruth Mustonen (11 months at the time of his death) and Leane Ross (not born when he died), were in attendance at the ceremony in Brainerd, Minnesota.

In August 2007, the writer Peter Stekel who was working on a book about the ill-fated flight visited the area where Mustonen's body was discovered. Approximately 100 feet from the site, Stekel saw a second body. As he later reported, "...as I got closer and closer, I noticed what turned out to be a gold ring on his left ring finger." 

On February 8, 2008, authorities notified the family that Cadet Ernest G. Munn had been found. CNN reported that when he left for the service, he "told his mother never to cut her long hair. Authorities have notified his sisters, now in their 80s, about the [DNA] match. Munn is expected to be buried in May in Colerain, Ohio. His mother lived to be 102, never cut her hair and died awaiting word on his fate."

He was buried on May 17, 2008, in Colerain.

The remaining two bodies may be discovered in the near future, as the glacier continues to melt.

 

Location of the crash and bodies: A mystery?

According to a 1947 military report, the wreckage of the plane was found on Darwin Glacier. 

But that report may be inaccurate, according to one of the two university students who found the wreckage. George Bond, one of the students, told writer Peter Stekel that "Maps of that day and age didn't have [Mt.] Mendel