Fifty-two soldiers disappeared after their military aircraft crashed into a mountain peak in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska in 1952.

Now, after more than 60 years, these lost souls are coming home.

The 1952 aircraft was en route to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, and was carrying 52 passengers when it collided with Mount Gannett, ultimately killing everyone on board.

Although the wreckage was spotted six days after the crash, it was soon hidden by a shifting iceberg.

Military officials believed that recovery of the remains would be too dangerous to attempt.

The crash had triggered avalanches and the wreckage was already covered by fresh snow that was more than 8 feet deep.

Rachel Hollbrook’s 19-year-old brother Eddie was piloting the aircraft.

Her mother, like many relatives of the deceased passengers, spent decades seeking closure.

In an interview with WBIR, Rachel recalled:

“Mother even went to Alaska in her last year or two of life. We’d always thought he was still alive.”

In 2012, however, the Hollbrook family received a surprising phone call.

They learned the military had located the wreckage of the plane and were working to identify the remains of the 52 people on board.

“I knew then that he was just missing,” said Rachel. “That he was really dead.”

“It just brought everything back fresh. It was just like the day it all started.”

Tonja Anderson knows firsthand how it feels to grieve death without closure.

Her grandfather, Airman Isaac Anderson Jr., was 21 at the time of the crash – and Tonja says that, despite the time that had passed, her grandmother never gave up hope that her husband was still alive.

“Since no body was ever found, my grandmother believed he would walk through the door one day,” Rachel told Radio Canada International.

Since the 2012 rediscovery of the wreckage, Tonja has created a Facebook group for relatives of the airmen who died in the crash. She says she created it to help give closure to other people like her – people who either never met their relatives or only knew them briefly before their deaths.

One young man’s father had passed away in the crash, leaving him only with early memories of his father teaching him how to brush his hair.

“When we spoke, he pulled out the dog tag they found on the glacier, and that smile on his face was like he was a kid again. He was so proud,” Tonja recalled.

Next year will be the 10-year anniversary since the remains of the wreckage were rediscovered.

As of June of this year, 43 of the 52 passengers have now been identified through DNA, dental records, and fingerprints.

According to crews working on the site, the shifting of the glacier is “really dynamic … it changes rapidly, daily,” constantly revealing new items and clues.

In total, crews have recovered 460 bags of remains and nearly 100 bags of personal items.

While it’s unclear how long the military will continue the search, Katherine Gross, a medical legal examiner, has stated:

“I can say with some confidence that as long as we are finding remains out on the glacier and we have people yet to identify and bring home, we will keep looking.”

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Source: YouTube – WBIR, WBIR, Radio Canada International, Anchorage Daily News