Half a century after emergency landing, remains of a plane are retrieved in Pyrenees

Remains of a small plane that was forced into making an emergency landing in the Pyrenees mountains in northern Catalonia in 1964 have been retrieved.

Pieces of the small plane were found La Font Negra; a place located at 2,200 meters altitude and in the heart of the Pyrenees, at Tossa Plana de Lles - Puigpedrós.

A team made up of mountain rangers, staff of the Catalan Water Agency, a local town hall, a ski resort of a Catalan mountain town nearby, and volunteers have worked together on the removal of the remains.

The incident did not cause any deaths or injuries, and happened on "a night that was very cold, with a lot of wind and blizzard conditions," said Josep Mendo, the mayor of Guils, who added that the pilot opted for the emergency landing upon seeing lights in the zone.

Although the aircraft fell over the Canals area, an area in the municipalities of Guils de Cerdanya and La Tor de Querol, wind and avalanches have meant that over time, several pieces of scrap metal have scattered down the mountain, even as far as ​​the Nordic ski resort town of Guils Fontanera.

Faced with this situation, it was decided that all this material had to be removed. The operation was carried out this Monday, before livestock herds settle in the area, Mendo explained.

The scrap metal has now been grouped together at an area easily reachable by truck, with the intention that it will soon be transferred in order to carry out adequate management of the waste.

Officials said that the remains of the plane did not carry an environmental threat, but they had to be removed from the area.

The head of the local mountain rangers pointed out that the operation carried out was "exceptional" and thanked all the different groups and parties involved for their "sum of efforts" to make it possible.