After 56 years, an Indian Army expedition found four additional bodies at the site where an IAF plane carrying 102 individuals crashed in the Rohtang Pass of Himachal Pradesh, marking a key advancement in India’s prolonged search and recovery efforts.
The Air Force’s Antonov-12 military transport aircraft with four engines, departed from Chandigarh on February 7, 1968, and crashed due to severe weather conditions. The debris and bodies of the victims were buried in the snowy landscape.
The wreckage was initially found by climbers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering in 2003, prompting several Army expeditions, with the Dogra Scouts spearheading search missions in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2019.
Even after a ten-year search and rescue effort in the challenging landscape, only five bodies had been found at the crash site by 2019.
Following a prolonged period of anticipation, the Chandra Bhaga Mountain Expedition of the Indian Army retrieved an additional four bodies, bringing the total count of recoveries to nine. Army officials have confirmed that they have identified only three out of the four bodies found.
What was the process of identifying the bodies?
The Indian Army announced that thanks to the documents discovered on their bodies, the three deceased individuals have been recognized as Sepoys Narayan Singh, Malkhan Singh, and Thomas Charan, from different army corps.
Narayan Singh’s body was recognized by his paybook discovered on him, while Malkhan Singh’s body was identified by a voucher discovered in his pocket. Similarly, Thomas Charan, a Craftsman, was also recognized with additional verification from his playbook.
The Army announced they had discovered information about the unidentified fourth victim and notified the family of this finding. They stated that the journey will extend until October 10.