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 7 Squadron Lancaster bomber of the Pathfinders, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey Douglas Head.

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

It was Head’s rear gunner who first spotted what might be a crash site, further north than had initially been thought. The story is laconically but vividly told in Head’s Captain’s Report, held in an appendix to 7 Squadron records. The rear gunner and the mid-upper gunner, having both by now seen the possible site, 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 hoping to arrange a suitable 80th anniversary celebration.