KEY POINTS:
In honour of the crouching, naked blonde painted on its nose, its pilot had named his bomber the "Hot as Hell".
But it was a freezing, stormy day as the American B-24 Liberator made its way across the Himalayas on January 25, 1944, flying what was known as
"the Hump", perhaps the most dangerous route in air transport history.
It was one of nine American planes that went down that day as they tried to resupply China's besieged army in the city of Kunming, desperately trying to hold out against the invading Japanese during World War II.
Many of the wrecks have never been found.
The Hot as Hell's crew of eight were listed as missing in action and later presumed dead. Its fate was a mystery the crewmen's families lived with for 60 years.
That is until Clayton Kuhles, an Arizona businessmen who spends his free time trekking through the mountains of northeastern India in search of World War II plane wrecks, found the debris of the plane in thick jungle in December 2006.
Kuhles has found the remains of nine planes in the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh in the past five years, doggedly logging his discoveries, informing American military authorities and posting them on his website (www.miarecoveries.org).
Now, after determined lobbying from relatives of the dead airmen, the US military is finally swinging into action.
This month, it said it was in talks with the Indian Government to conduct a joint operation to search for some of the planes and bring the airmen's remains home.
"We were very, very happy to see that," said Gary Zaetz, nephew of the Hot as Hell's navigator, First Lieutenant Irwin Zaetz. "We would like them to do it some time this year."
By the end of the war, 650,000 tonnes of fuel, munitions and other supplies were flown over the Hump, from northeastern India across Burma to Kunming. On a single day in August 1945, more than 1000 round-trips were made across the mountains, carrying a payload of more than 5000 tonnes.
With just a map, a compass and a radio signal to navigate by, the route, passing over 4500m ridges, was so hazardous airmen also nicknamed it "the Aluminium Trail".
Many planes suffered from icing, some ran out of fuel, others lost their way in storms and simply crashed into the mountains. Rescue missions were mounted, with sketchy results.
The US Department of Defence says that more than 500 US aircraft and 1200 crew members are still missing in the China-Burma-India theatre from World War II, with 416 Americans missing in India alone.
But with so many more missing in places like Korea and Vietnam, its attention and efforts appeared to be elsewhere - until Kuhles entered the scene.
It all began, he says, with a chance comment from a guide while holidaying in Myanmar, as Burma is now known.
Hearing of Kuhles' interest in military history, he mentioned that a Kachin hunter had once told him about a plane wreck in the northern jungles, close to the Indian border.
Kuhles decided it would be fun to take a look and off they set, interviewing the hunter, and eventually finding the wreck.
"It was so remote I am absolutely positive no Westerner has even been to that site - or to any of the others I have found," he said.
"Locals know about them from hunting trips, when they are looking for things such as game animals or medicinal herbs."
The search then moved to India, where Kuhles relies on local guide Oken Tayeng to track down crash sites, most of them high in the mountains in almost impassable jungle in Arunachal Pradesh, where tales of the wrecks have passed into local folklore.
"We have known about the aircraft since we were children," Tayeng said. "But most people think they are English planes, because for them white people mean English."
Tribal contacts and distant relatives have helped Tayeng trace the planes. He says he has information about five or six more for Kuhles to look into on his next expedition.
They found the Hot As Hell close to Tayeng's ancestral village of Damroh. The crucial tail number was missing, but another amateur military enthusiast, Matthew Poole from Maryland, helped identify the plane from serial numbers found on individual parts - a painstaking process in itself.
Zaetz had always been interested in his father's and uncle's military careers. He was aimlessly cruising the internet when he Googled his uncle Irwin's name in the summer of 2007. Up popped Kuhles' website, listing the entire crew.
"I was totally flabbergasted," he said. "Our family had always regretted we had never found out what happened to my uncle's flight."
It was Zaetz's turn to play detective, spending the next six months tracking down the surviving relatives of the crew.
Their parents have all died, but the pilot's 92-year-old sister, the co-pilot's 90-year-old sister, the bombardier's 95-year-old brother and his uncle Irwin's 88-year-old wife, Ethel, are still alive.
Then there are people like Susan Parham, who was engaged to be married to the plane's bombardier, First Lieutenant Robert Oxford.
"Our efforts are really time critical," said Zaetz. " We want to ensure [these elderly relatives] have meaningful closure before their time runs out."
All of the airmen will be entitled to a burial with a military honour guard at a national cemetery if relatives wish.
But Zaetz says his family want their uncle with them.
"We want his remains buried at the family plot," he said.
- Reuters
