By IANS,
Shimla : The Indian Army has embarked on another expedition to locate the bodies of 98 defence personnel who died 41 years ago when the aircraft they were travelling in crashed Feb 7, 1968 in the rugged, cold and inhospitable Himalayan terrain of Himachal Pradesh.
A total of 102 defence personnel, including six crew members, were travelling by the Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-12 aircraft that was flying from Chandigarh to Leh. It crashed on the 17,400 foot high Dakka Glacier in the Chanderbhaga ranges in Lahaul and Spiti district. Only four bodies have so far been found.
“This year, scanty snowfall in the Himalayas has once again rekindled hope of finding the bodies of the victims and the aircraft’s wreckage. It’s still a mystery how the aircraft crashed as its black box is yet to be recovered,” Major Vasudevan of the Dogra Scouts, who is leading the expedition, told IANS.
The 20-member expedition mostly comprises mountaineers drawn from the Dogra Scouts.
“Four bodies were recovered during previous search operations carried out by the army and the air force. This time we are hopeful of retrieving more bodies as there was less snowfall during winter on the peaks of Dakka Glacier. Our priority would also be to recover the black box,” Vasudevan said.
The team will spend a week acclimatizing at its base camp at Bathal in Lahaul and Spiti district, 350 km from here, and set out on the 10-day search, named “Op Phoenix”, on Aug 5.
“From the base camp, we will daily trek 14 km up and down on inhospitable peaks to reach the accident spot. Due to to extreme cold and rarefied atmosphere, the team will return to the base camp before sunset. The glacier, still abound with snow, is seven-km-long and half a km wide,” Vasudevan said.
In July 2003, local trekkers on the way to scale the Chanderbhaga ranges spotted a body and some aircraft wreckage. The body had been partially reduced to a skeleton.
A service book and a letter recovered from the army uniform and overcoat on the body led to the identification of the victim as Sepoy Beli Ram. After this, the army and the air force carried out search operations in the area but found nothing.
Expeditions mounted in 2005 and 2006 also yielded no success. In 2007, the search parties managed to retrieve three bodies from the accident spot.
“Still, the family and well-wishers of 98 defence personnel are hoping of getting the mortal remains of their kith and kin,” Vasudevan said.
The entire Lahaul and Spiti district, populated mainly by tribals, remains cut off from the rest of the country for more than six months of the year owing to heavy snowfall. Climatic conditions in the landlocked district are harsh as much of it is a cold desert.