My guide said to me: There is something special we want to show you.’ (Picture: Supplied) While millions of visitors head to Cambodia each year for the temples of Angkor Wat, thanks to my odd obsession for climbing the highest mountains in every country I visit, I found myself hiking through dense jungle instead. Having hired a local guide from a nearby village, we’d set off into thick rainforest where there were no crowds, no souvenir stalls and barely another person in sight. We were in search of the country’s highest peak, Mount Aural, a little-known summit rising more than 1,800 metres above sea level in the remote Cardamom Mountains. For hours we followed little more than a faint trail winding through humid jungle, broken only by small metal altitude markers nailed to trees. My guide, Pu Makara, spoke almost no English, so our conversations were relayed over walkie-talkie by another guide, Lina Seanglay, who had been forced to remain at base camp after falling ill. After five hours and covering 15km, we finally reached the summit. I had assumed that once we caught our breath, we would head back to the basecamp where we started out. Sadie was taken on a detour through the thick, dense jungle (Picture: Supplied) But then Lina asked over the radio whether I’d like to take a different route back down. ‘There is something special I want Pu Makara to show you,’ she said with an air of mystery. The guide wasn’t exaggerating. After taking a detour through dense forest, an enormous aircraft suddenly emerged from the trees. Wedged between giant boulders, the military transport plane appeared almost frozen in time. Moss and lichen had slowly swallowed parts of its aluminium shell, while vines wrapped around broken wings that had remained untouched for decades. It felt less like stumbling across a tourist attraction and more like discovering a forgotten piece of history. For 30 minutes we took in the sight of this mysterious wreck, being careful not to trip on the undergrowth enveloping the steep mountain edge. Pu Makara gestured to ask if I wanted a photo beside it, but it didn’t seem appropriate. In my mind, it stood as a memorial to those who lost their lives on that fateful flight, so instead I paused to pay my respects as the jungle chorus continued to chirp around us. {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Woman finds plane wreck from 1974 during trek on Cambodian mountain","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/08\/07\/8166073304776751470\/480x270_MP4_8166073304776751470.mp4","description":"Sadie Whitelocks trekked to the highest peak in Cambodia, Mount Aural (1,813m) with a local woman.\n\n\nDuring the trek they came across the plane wreck from 1974 which killed nine people - it is unknown if some survived and perished in the jungle - and the crash hasn\u2019t really been covered in western media and few tourists know about the mountain or this site.","duration":"T51S","height":480,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/07\/16\/1786118321046_8463212458165331.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-07T16:57:47+0100","width":270} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); There was so much I wanted to know, but it wasn’t until I was back at camp, that Lina explained what little is known locally about the crash site. According to local accounts, the aircraft is believed to be a Curtiss C-46 Commando military transport that went down on Christmas Day in 1974 during Cambodia’s brutal civil war. ‘It crashed in a war zone between the Lon Nol regime and the Pol Pot regime,’ she told me. Local guides believe there were 11 people onboard — one pilot, one flight crew member and nine military passengers. ‘We believe no one survived,’ said Lina. ‘But it’s possible some passengers made it out of the wreckage, only to become lost in the dense jungle.’ It felt less like stumbling across a tourist attraction and more like discovering a forgotten piece of history (Picture: Supplied) She explained that villagers are thought to have discovered the wreck several years after the crash, although because the area was an active conflict zone, there are few surviving records. In the early 2000s, the site finally began attracting adventurous hikers – but despite its remarkable state of preservation, very little official information exists about the accident. It was a mystery that intrigued aviation accident investigator David Gleave, Chief Investigator at Aviation Safety Investigations, who believes the wreck itself could still hold important clues. The plane crashed in a war zone between the Lon Nol regime and the Pol Pot regime (Picture: Supplied) ‘There may still be physical evidence that allows investigators to begin building a picture of what happened,’ he tells Metro. ‘The bending of the propellers could indicate how much engine power was being produced before impact — or whether they had failed altogether.’ David explains that investigators would also examine whether the aircraft suffered fuel starvation, mechanical failure or navigational problems. ‘There doesn’t appear to have been much post-impact fire,’ he adds. ‘That means some valuable physical evidence may still exist.’ The aircraft itself offers another clue. Built in 1943 as a World War II military transport, the Curtiss C-46 was manufactured decades before flight data recorders or cockpit voice recorders — today’s so-called “black boxes” — became standard equipment. That means investigators would have relied almost entirely on the wreckage itself, while the location also raises questions. Local guides believe there were 11 people onboard — one pilot, one flight crew member and nine military passengers (Picture: Supplied) ‘Mountains generate turbulence and powerful wind effects that can make climbing difficult,’ David explains. ‘If you’re flying visually and cloud suddenly drops, you can lose all navigation references very quickly.’ Older navigation equipment could also become unreliable around mountainous terrain. ‘Some radio navigation signals become distorted by mountains, making accurate positioning much harder.’ Whether anyone could have survived the initial impact is impossible to know. According to David, crashing into dense forest can sometimes improve survival chances because trees absorb some of the impact energy. Even if someone had survived the crash, the surrounding jungle would have posed enormous challenges (Picture: Supplied) ‘Level jungle can actually provide a survivable deceleration,’ he explains. ‘But mountainous jungle is different. Trees may slow the aircraft before it strikes rock.’ The C-46’s relatively fragile nose section would also have reduced the crew’s chances of survival. ‘Passengers seated further back and properly restrained may have had a better chance.’ Even if someone had survived the crash, the surrounding jungle would have posed enormous challenges. Recovering the aircraft itself would have been even harder. Read more: How four children survived a plane crash that killed every adult on board… ‘Today you might send specialist teams in by helicopter. But in the middle of a civil war, with dangerous terrain and active fighting, investigators may simply have concluded there was little they could safely do,’ says David, who suspects political instability also played a role. ‘Was there even an accident investigation authority operating effectively in Cambodia at the time? Was it simply too dangerous to investigate?’ Unlike modern commercial aircraft, which constantly transmit their location using satellite tracking and emergency beacons, aircraft in the 1970s could simply disappear. Few realise that deep inside its highest mountain lies another monument to Cambodia’s history Picture: Supplied) Today, aviation technology means crashes on land are rarely left undiscovered for long, and historic wrecks like Cambodia’s jungle C-46 are becoming increasingly rare. Standing beside the aircraft, surrounded by rainforest that has slowly reclaimed it over half a century, it was difficult not to wonder how many secrets still lie hidden inside its battered fuselage. Most visitors come to Cambodia to marvel at temples built centuries ago. Few realise that deep inside its highest mountain lies another monument to history — one that has never been restored, never fully investigated, and may never completely give up the mystery of what happened on Christmas Day, 1974. Lina Smile Tours runs trekking expeditions in Cambodia, for more information click here.