Fifty-six years after an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft carrying 102 people on board crashed in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohtang Pass, an Indian Army expedition recovered four more bodies from the accident site, marking a significant development in India’s longest-running search and recovery operations.
The four-engine turboprop Antonov-12 military transport aircraft of the Air Force which took off from Chandigarh on February 7, 1968, crashed after encountering severe weather. The wreckage and remains of the victims were lost in the snow-clad terrain.
The mountaineers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering first discovered the wreckage in 2003, leading to multiple expeditions by the Army, especially the Dogra Scouts, who remained at the forefront of the search missions in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2019.
Despite a decade-long search and recovery operations in the unforgiving terrain, only five bodies were recovered from the accident site till 2019.
After a long wait, the Indian Army’s Chandra Bhaga Mountain Expedition recovered four more bodies, taking the total number of recoveries to nine. According to the Army officials, only three bodies have been identified out of the four recoveries.
How The Bodies Were Identified?
The Indian Army said that with the help of documents found in their bodies, the three bodies have been identified as Sepoys Narayan Singh (Army Medical Corps), Malkhan Singh (Pioneer Corps) and Thomas Charan (Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers).
While Narayan Singh’s body was identified by his paybook found on his person, Malkhan Singh’s body was identified by a voucher found in his pocket. Similarly, Craftsman Thomas Charan was also identified with further confirmation through his playbook.
The Army said that they found details of the fourth victim who remains to be identified and informed his family of the development. The expedition will continue till October 10, they added.
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