On Tuesday, November 17, 1942, aircraft CNAC No. 60 climbed slowly
toward the Himalayas, growing smaller and smaller until it finally
faded from sight, never to be seen again—until seventy years later.
This is the story of one family's search for answers about the
aircraft and its crew, particularly the co-pilot, James S. Browne.
Browne was a pilot for China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC),
an airline jointly owned by the Republic of China and Pan American
World Airways and flown under contract with the U.S. Army Air
Corps. CNAC's mission was to pioneer and fly the dangerous Hump
routes over the Himalayas to deliver gasoline, weapons, ammunition,
and war goods. These supplies were desperately needed to keep China
in the war, for if China left the war, more than one million
Japanese troops would be free to control the Pacific. Browne and
his crew were killed in a plane crash while en route to Dinjan
Airfield in India for supplies. Rescue missions following their
disappearance were unsuccessful. Nearly forty years later, Robert
L. Willett picks up where the search left off, hoping to find
Browne, his missing cousin. After gathering crash-site information
on a trip to China, Willett sends a search team on three ascents up
Cang Shan Mountain near Dali, China, and finally strikes metal—the
scattered wreckage of Browne's C-47. From the very beginning of the
discovery eight years ago, Willett's efforts to excavate the site
and bring Jimmie Browne home have encountered bureaucratic
roadblocks with U.S. government agencies and the Chinese
government. His search-and-recover mission continues even today.