supply drop. The rest of the team returned to the wreck to locate and evacuate the bodies.

The climb was hard work in the new snow and, with visibility dropping to a few yards, they had to keep stopping to wait for an improvement. They were carrying the Thomas stretcher on which to evacuate the body found the previous day. The leaders were sinking waist-deep in the new snow and it took five hours to reach the wreck. ropes weren't necessary, but axes and crampons were used on the steeper slopes. At the site of the crash there were 27° of frost, and they were unable to remain there for longer than an hour. They dug out three more frozen bodies and said a prayer above the pit containing the main wreckage. This day there was an American enlisted man with them: the only American to reach the crash without the aid of a helicopter.

They brought one body two miles down the mountain and left it in a cave, being too exhausted to carry it the last two miles over very rough ground. They would have transferred it to a mule but the animal bolted.

For the third night in succession several inches of snow fell. Next morning it was raining, changing to sleet and then to snow as they made their third climb to the wreck. Cloud was down almost to the base camp and the previous day's tracks were no longer visible. Only eight members of the team could manage to make the effort to return. It was intensely cold with a bitter wind blowing, and they were starting to contract frostbite. Some members had climbed only in Cyprus until this operation; others had climbed elsewhere but only in summer conditions.

On this third day the R.A.A. were the only men to reach the wreckage. On the heavy Thomas stretcher it was possible to evacuate only one body each day, so they intended to bring down the rest of the dead in strong bags provided by the United States Air Force.

Again the climb took five hours. Visibility was one hundred yards or less. When they reached the wreck they found their efforts had been wasted, for the bodies were frozen into sitting positions and couldn't be put into the bags. The R.A.F covered them with pieces of wreckage against the wolves and returned to the valley, arriving at base camp at dusk.

On the 24th the weather cleared. Hundreds of Turkish peasants arrived from other villages; the Americans having offered them money to recover the bodies. The team went out and brought in the body they had left in the cave on the second day. Then they stayed down, thinking that their work here was over, and waiting to be returned to Adana. Of the six-wheeled trucks which had brought them in with their equipment, two had broken down and the others had been recalled to their station. A Turkish helicopter arrived to be placed at the disposal of the senior U.S. officer, Lieutenant-Commander Cartmel. After consultation it was decided that, since he had only three men of his own (the Air Police having returned to Adana), the team should remain on the mountain to give him support.

On Monday, January 25th, the weather was perfect. There were no clouds and no wind. After a reconnaissance for a landing ground by three members, the Turkish helicopter lifted the team, the U.S. Navy investigating officers and twenty villagers to an altitude of 6,800 feet, from which point it took them only one and a half hours to reach the wreck.

Refreshed now, without the bitter wind and the constant threat of bad weather, they renewed their efforts to recover the bodies. The aircraft's instruments and some controls were found and taken down to the valley by the Turkish porters.

Meanwhile Emmerson and Murphy were investigating the point of impact. It will be remembered that the Mercator had hit the ridge with the tip of its starboard wing (which had fallen into the next corrie) had scraped a swathe of snow along the flank of the ridge, and flown straight into the corner formed by the ridge itself and the diamond-shaped buttress on its left.

Emmerson and Murphy were intrigued by the great mass of snow-covered wreckage which was hanging in the top of the crack at the back of the Continue to page 9