Glacial Challenge

In 1946, a twenty-five year old US Air Force pilot, Ralph Tate, got lost while flying a DC3 over Switzerland. First, he realised he was in the mountains, then he realised he had touched-down, and then he had to force the controls away from his co-pilot, who thought he was suffering from vertigo, to finish the accidental landing. He found himself stranded on the Gauli Glacier at 9,900 feet, with twelve passengers, mostly high-ranking officers and their families. None of the passengers were injured, and luckily the ‘wireless’ still worked. Tate’s call for help resulted in the first Swiss Glacier Rescue Operation.

After three days of bad weather, two Swiss military pilots, Captain Viktor Hug and Major Pista Hilz, landed their Fieseler Storch on skis (which they had recently fitted, and had been practising with) on the extremely short landing area, and brought out all the victims, which required several trips.

This rescue was not only the start of glacier flying...