November 2026 will see the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the crew and passengers of an American C-53 aircraft which crash-landed at the Gauli Glacier in the Swiss Bernese Alps. The aircraft, which was bound for Pisa in Italy, came down in poor visibility. There were injuries but no fatalities, although this was unknown to the authorities at first.

Due to the wintery Alpine weather, it was a matter of urgency that the survivors should be rescued as quickly as possible. A massive media frenzy began, the incident being covered worldwide.

A number of aircraft search parties went out but the aircraft which finally located the crash site was a Lancaster bomber of 7 Squadron, a squadron well-known as having belonged to the Pathfinders. The Lancaster was piloted by Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey Douglas Head, and, judging by his decorations, he must have served during the war, very possibly with the same crew.

Flight Lieutenant Head with his crew, a still from the British Pathe film

The story is laconically but vividly told in Head’s Captain’s Report, held in an appendix to 7 Squadron records. It was Head’s rear gunner who first spotted what might be a crash site, further north than had initially been estimated. On the aircraft going round, both the rear gunner and the mid-upper gunner saw the possible site, but had only 30 seconds to confirm what they suspected before cloud cover closed in.

The aircraft had no W/T contact with Istres, near Marseille, the airfield from which it had flown, and thus the crew could not radio in their sighting. The navigator, who had been without fixings for 50 minutes, plotted a position by DR (Dead Reckoning), and the crew then returned to Istres.

After a further flight and confirmation that the crashed aircraft had indeed been located, Heard wrote:

We felt very pleased that our efforts had not been in vain.

The Americans at first claimed the credit for the discovery of the aircraft, but retracted this quickly and issued a press statement confirming that it was the RAF who had made the first sighting.

Head’s crew returned to England, but not to their home base, RAF Upwood, but direct to London Airport, as directed. They landed at 17.32, to face a massive media feeding frenzy. Amongst the reports, photographs, and films gathered was a wonderful interview with the crew, the junior members looking endearingly bashful as their skipper told the tale. (NOTE, 12 May 2026: until recently this was on the British Pathe website, but now unfortunately seems to have disappeared.)

That night, as Head noted laconically, “Arrangements for our accommodation on the part of the Air Force were nil” – instead, it was through the “kindness” of the Air Minister for Personnel staff that accommodation for them was found at Uxbridge.

JENNIE MACK GRAY

If you have any further information about this story, please contact us so that we can pass it on to Kuno Gross – he is researching this incident and arranging what sounds like a rather spectacular 80th Anniversary celebration.

Kuno writes: The planning of the event is running well.

• Date is set for 10 and 11 October
• We do not get funding by the Swiss air force, but we can use their infrastructure. That saves us a lot of cost.
• I got confirmation of the owner of a C-47 that they will come. The only two Fieseler Storch “in reach” are not flyable… but we will have a Slepcev-Storch, this is a ¾ size Storch. Looks very much like the original, just smaller. Since the airfield is lcosed for the weekend, there will be only a static display.
• I have also conformation that a M-29 Weasel tracked vehicle and at least one Jeep will be on display.
• REGA, Swiss helicopter rescue will have their booth, also a helicopter on display on Saturday.