FRANKFORT, N.Y. (AP) — The remains of a World War II airman have been identified and will be returned to his upstate New York hometown for burial, nearly 70 years after his plane and two others slammed into a remote, jungle-covered mountainside in the South Pacific.

Relatives say they were notified by military officials last week that bone fragments found at the crash site on the island of Papua-New Guinea were identified as Sgt. Dominick Licari's. His dog tags were also found and are being returned next week along with the remains.

The 31-year-old from Frankfort, near Utica, was aboard an A-20 Havoc bomber that crashed into a mountain in bad weather in March 1944. Two other A-20s hit the same mountain, killing six U.S. airmen in all.

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