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Kathua chopper crash: Naval searchers continue to scour Ranjit Sagar lake to find co-pilot
On Sunday, body of one of the two pilots on board the Rudra helicopter that had crashed into the lake was found after 12 days of the incident
Naval searchers had been trying to trace the co-pilot in the Ranjit Sagar Dam reservoir in Basohli area of Kathua district, but success has so far eluded them, officials said on Tuesday.
On Sunday, body of one of the two pilots on board the Rudra helicopter that had crashed into the lake was found after 12 days of the incident.
Kathua senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ramesh Chander Kotwal said, “Body of the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel AS Batth, was retrieved from the Ranjit Sagar lake around 6.30pm on Sunday while search for the co-pilot (a captain) are on. There is no further progress.”
A defence spokesperson had on Saturday said, “The Indian Air Force has lifted heavy equipment from Visakhapatnam to Pathankot to speed up the underwater search. Indian Army and all other agencies, including the navy, IAF, NDRF, Ranjit Sagar Dam Authority, district authorities and locals, are sparing no effort to bring the operations to a final conclusion.”
On August 11, on the ninth day of intense searches since the helicopter had came down, the rescuers had located the wreckage of the ill-fated machine at a depth of nearly 80 metres in the vast lake.
“The wreckage of the #ArmyHelicopter that had crashed into the #RanjitSagarReservoir had been identified at a depth of approx 80m from the surface of the reservoir. Heavy duty #RemotelyOperatedVehicles are being flown in to assist the recovery operations (sic),” the Western Command had posted on its Twitter handle.
The Rudra helicopter had crashed on August 3 around 10.43am. Built at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the chopper was carrying out a training sortie that involved low-level flying over the lake.
The helicopter belonged to the Army’s Pathankot-based 254 ALH-WSI squadron, which had earlier lost a Rudra chopper in January 2021.
Lt Col Batth cremated with military honours in Amritsar
The mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonel Abheet Singh Batth were consigned to flames with full military honours at his hometown Amritsar on Tuesday.
His body reached his home in Adarsh Nagar about 11am and was taken to Shaheedan cremation ground in the afternoon.
His pyre was lit by his son, Ahan Singh, after the jawans gave him a guard of honour.
He is survived by his mother Balwinder Kaur, wife Sukhpreet Kaur and son.
Abheet was born and brought up in Amritsar and joined the Indian Army after completing his education from local Khalsa College.
Abheet’s father Sarabjit Singh Batth, who died a few years ago, had also served in the army, it is learnt.
