Body recovered near World War II crash

FRESNO, Calif., Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A body found on a remote California glacier is to be taken to Hawaii to determine if it is a military pilot who disappeared 65 years ago.

The body, brought off the mountain Monday, was found within 100 feet of where Leo Mustonen, a 22-year-old Army Air Force cadet, was found by hikers in October 2005 in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Fresno (Calif.) Bee reported Tuesday.

Mustonen, of Brainerd, Minn., and three others were flying an AT-7 aircraft in November 1942 when they strayed off course and crashed in rocky terrain at 12,300 feet, the Bee reported.

The body, discovered last week by Peter Stekel, an author writing a book about the crash, is to be flown to Hawaii for identification by military forensic specialists, the Bee reported.

The three others on the flight were Army cadets John Mortensen, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairesville, Ohio, and the pilot, 2nd Lt. William Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio.