The Hindu : National : Remains of soldiers killed in 1968 air crash recovered

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Remains of soldiers killed in 1968 air crash recovered

Rajesh Ahuja

Army team finds them in Lahaul valley in H.P.

102 were aboard AN-12 aircraft which hit the Chandrabhaga Peak
In July 2003 an expedition team discovered the wreckage site

CHANDIGARH: The mortal remains of the three soldiers, killed in an AN 12 aircraft crash near the Chandrabhaga Peak 39 years ago, were recovered by an Army expedition team from the Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh and moved here by helicopters.

An Army spokesman said here on Friday that “Operation Punaruthan – III,” launched to retrieve the remains of the missing soldiers of the 1968 crash, succeeded in their mission. They found the remains on Thursday in a glaciated area at an altitude of 17,500 feet.

Five-day search

The expedition, launched under the leadership of Major Nishant Kumar of Dogra Scouts on August 2, tasted the success after a five-day search of the area.

The spokesman said efforts were on to confirm the identity of the deceased from the documents and identity cards recovered along with the bodies. The remains will be taken to their native places and the last rites conducted with full military honours.

Routine sortie

He said an AN-12 aircraft of the Indian Air Force took off from Chandigarh on February 7, 1968 on a routine logistics sortie, with 102 persons on board, to Leh. En route, the aircraft was not able to negotiate the bad weather and it hit the 6,264-metre high Chandrabhaga Peak in the Lahaul Valley in Lahaul and Spiti District of Himachal Pradesh. There were no survivors and a search could not even find the remains of the aircraft.

Wreckage located

The spokesman said it was only in July 2003 that an expedition team from the Manali Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports discovered the wreckage site.

The team also found the mortal remains and documents of Pioneer Beli Ram. They were taken to his native village in Akhnoor and cremated with full military honours.

After the discovery of the wreckage, the Army had been launching expeditions every summer.

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