How Lance Naik Hanamanthappa cheated death in Siachen

New Delhi: The survival of Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad from the deadly avalanche in Siachen broke all scientific rules and regulations.

As per the research of University of Hanborough in Austria the chances of survival in so much of snow is impossible. They claimed that under such situation 45-160 minutes of survival is very difficult.

Hanamanthappa - a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) - along with nine other ranks of Madras Regiment were buried under a mass of snow after their post was hit by the avalanche at the altitude of 19,600 feet close to the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan on February 3, where the temperature was around -45C.

While Hanamanthappa's survival has left many perplexed, here is a look which might helped him to cheat death.

It seems that soon after the avalanche, the brave JCO might have regained his senses and didn't allow him to get panicked and disoriented.

Usually as per Army training one should try to keep himself above the ice surface but in this case Hanamanthappa was found 25 feet below the surface.

Experts suggests that in such cases (buried under snow) one should curl body into the foetal position to retain the warmth and then dig an air pocket. Hanamanthappa might have curled up his body to keep himself warm.

Preliminary report suggests that he may have landed into a natural air pocket and didn’t have to struggle to dig an air pocket (to breath), which saved his energy and body heat. Under those adverse conditions saving an iota of energy could be a decisive factor between life and death.

The apparent natural air pocket might have helped Hanamanthappa to keep him alive for six days as the warmth of his body could have trapped inside the pocket.