Wreckage found on an Alaskan glacier is the remains of a missing Air Force plane that crashed in the 1950s, killing all 52 people on board.

Authorities revealed today the site has been identified after it was discovered on Knik Glacier near Anchorage earlier this month.

It means the victims' families may finally get answers as to why their loved ones died nearly 60 years on from the tragedy.

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© UnknownSpecialised team: Team members from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Northern Warefare Training Center, searches for aircraft wreckage on Knik Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska

Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command spokesperson Captain Jamie Dobson said the wreckage is of a Douglas C-124A Globemaster II.

The Korean War-era Air Force cargo plane crashed on November 22, 1952, NBC station KTUU of Anchorage reported.

It was found on June 10 on Colony Glacier, around 45 miles east of Anchorage, by a UH-60 Blackhawk crew with the Alaska Army National Guard.

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© US Air ForceWorkhorse: The Douglas C-124C Globemaster II was the largest transport aircraft when it was introduced into service in 1950
While evidence collected by the eight-man team is en route to JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for further analysis, Cpt Dobson said the plane was identifiable by materials found at the scene.

'Some of the evidence has already been positively correlated with this crash,' Cpt Dobson told KTUU.

Harsh weather prevented a recovery at the time and later the authorities could not locate it.

The Globemaster II entered Air Force service in 1950 as the world's largest transport plane.

Its forward loading ramp and aft cargo elevator, as well as its ability to carry 68,500 pounds of cargo or 200 passengers on two decks of seating, made it the Air Force's primary heavy-lift transport into the early 1960s.

The four-propeller transport was eventually replaced by the C-141 Starlifter jet, but its name lives on in Alaska skies with the C-17 Globemaster III, operated by the 517th Airlift Squadron at Anchorage's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Crash researcher Tonja Anderson, whose grandfather Airman Isaac Anderson died in the crash, told KTUU the cargo plane was on a flight from McChord Air Force Base in Washington to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage when it crashed near the 8,000ft level of Mount Gannett.

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© UnknownLocator map: The crash site area is on Knik Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska