Old aircraft wreckage found on Alaska glacier

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Military officials said on Thursday they had found what is believed to be old aircraft wreckage, along with some possible bone tissue, scattered on a glacier near Anchorage.

The wreckage was spotted on Sunday when Alaska Army National Guardsmen were conducting a helicopter training flight in the Knik Glacier region northeast of Anchorage, officials from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson said.

"It looks like it is a military aircraft," said Air Force Master Sergeant Mikal Canfield, a spokesman for the Anchorage base. No other details about the wreckage were available, he said.

The base called the wreck possibly "historic" and said the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a temporary flight restriction for the area, but did not elaborate.

Nothing has been taken from the site, pending further investigation, Canfield said.

At the request of Alaska military officials, the Hawaii-based U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is trying to plan a recovery mission at the Knik Glacier site, a spokeswoman said.

JPAC, which focuses on search and recovery missions for missing U.S. service members, hopes to schedule an Alaska trip and line up necessary expertise to work on the glacier, said Captain Jamie Dobson, a spokeswoman for the command.

"We believe that there's a reason for JPAC to be involved," she said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb)