Shimla: An Indian Army expedition has retrieved the mortal remains of a victim of an Indian Air Force transport aircraft crash in 1968 in Himachal Pradesh.
Ninety-eight army personnel and four crew members were killed when the Indian Air Force AN-12 aircraft crashed on the 17,400-feet-high Dhakka Glacier in the Chanderbhaga ranges of Lahaul and Spiti district on February 7, 1968.
Despite three search missions, only four bodies had been recovered till 2009.
“After 45-and-a-half years, an Indian Army expedition on August 22 recovered the mortal remains of a non-commissioned officer, Hav Jagmail Singh of Corps of EME,” said an official statement from the Western Command headquarters yesterday.
An identity disk, an insurance policy and a letter from his family retrieved from his pocket helped identify him, the statement said.
“The remains are being brought to Chandimandir Military Station (in Chandigarh) Saturday, from where it will be taken to his native place Meerpur village in Rewari district of Haryana for the last rites,” it said.
The aircraft had taken off from Chandigarh for Leh.
Halfway, pilot Flt Lt H K Singh decided to turn back due to inclement weather over Jammu and Kashmir.
The last radio contact was near Rohtang Pass and thereafter the aircraft appeared to have vanished.
The disappearance remained a mystery until 2003, when an expedition team accidentally discovered the debris at the Dhakka Glacier.
On August 16 this year the army embarked on another expedition to try and locate the mortal remains of its fallen men as also to recover the flight data recorder.
“The glacier where the operations are under way lies at an altitude of approximately 17,000-18,000 feet, is avalanche-prone and dotted with innumerable crevasses. The site itself is at an 80 degree gradient from the base camp,” the statement said.
High wind velocities and sub-zero temperatures restrict the search window to about 15-20 days a year and that too only for a few hours during the day. The team, braving all odds, continued its mission till August 30, it added.
IANS
