Search launched for World War II crash bodies

LONDON -- A search is to be mounted for the bodies of a UK Royal Air Force flight which crashed into an Icelandic glacier during World War II.

The RAF said Thursday it would send a mountain rescue team later this month to the site of the July 1941 crash near Akureyri in northern Iceland, some 3,600 feet above sea level, to give the four men a proper burial.

The bodies of Britons Reginald Hopkins, Henry Talbot, Keith Garrett and their pilot, New Zealander Arthur Round, only came to light last spring when hikers came across the wreckage and found the ice and snow covering the small aircraft had melted.

The air crew were members of the RAF's now defunct "98 Squadron" and were in their late teens to early 20s when their coastal patrol Fairey Battle plane crashed into a mountain range in fog just minutes after take-off.

While the crash site was found two days later, it was decided at the time it would be too difficult to retrieve their bodies because of the remote location and they were given a basic burial.

"An RAF mountain rescue team is going over to Iceland on August 19," RAF spokeswoman Sue Raftree told Reuters.

"They will help the Icelandic people to search for the remains, which will be buried at a later date."

Raftree said the RAF would also be flying eight relatives of the dead airmen out to the Icelandic capital Reykjavik on August 25 for a commemorative service two days later.

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