Representative of the Jianchuan Museum hands over the remains of US pilots to the US authorities in a ceremony held in Dayi county in southwest China's Sichuan province. (People's Daily Online/Wang Bo)

Jianchuan Museum handed over the remains of US pilots who helped China during WWII to the US authorities in a ceremony held in Dayi County in southwest China's Sichuan province Thursday.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of World Anti-Fascist War, a research team led by Sichuan’s Jianchuan Museum went to Tibet to search for the wreckage of US military C-87 transport aircraft which crashed 72 years ago.

Search team arrives in Nyingchi in Tibet to collect the wreckage of US military C-87 transport aircraft that crashed seventy-two years ago. (Photo/Xinhua)

28 pieces of what appear to be the remains of American pilots were found in the search, including a complete human foot inside a US military boot. Frozen in the glaciers, the foot has not decomposed. Preliminary forensic identification by the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Bureau indicates these remains belong to three different men of European or American backgrounds.

A US military boot found by the research team with a complete foot inside. (Photo/wccdaily.com.cn)

The famous "Hump" air route was an "air lifeline" that World War II Allied Forces opened to transport strategic goods to China. It is the route which lasted the longest, with the most difficult conditions and paid the greatest price in the war. “Hump” pilots delivered a total of about 850,000 tons of strategic materials to China. 563 American aircraft crashed or became missing, more than 1,500 pilots from China and U.S. lost their lives.

"The search process was very difficult, but eventually we found a part of the aircraft wreckage and the remains of the US pilots," Fan Jianchuan, curator of the museum said. “The US Air Force was very active in Sichuan province during the Chinese Anti-Japanese War. 3 million Sichuanese helped the US Air Force to build nearly thirty airports during the war. 72 years later, we found American heroes' remains and returned them to the U.S., which represents our deepest gratitude to those people who helped us before," Fan said.

"Let the souls and remains of the martyrs return home." 

People mourn for the US pilots who died in China during the WWII. (People's Daily Online/Wang Bo)