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Army mountaineers recover bodies of 4 victims of 1968 AN-12 crash
Three of the bodies were found intact and were identified while the fourth soldier has not been identified thus far
Fifty-six years after an Indian Air Force AN-12 transport plane carrying 102 personnel, including four crew members, crashed in the rugged, snow-covered mountains near Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh, mountaineering teams led by the army’s Dogra Scouts have recovered the bodies of four personnel from the Dhaka glacier area at a height of almost 16,000 feet, army officials aware of the matter said on Monday.
Three of the bodies were found intact on Sunday and were identified to be those of Sepoys Malkhan Singh of the Pioneers Corps, Narayan Singh of the Army Medical Corps and Thomas Charan of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, the officials said, asking not to be named.
The fourth soldier has not been identified thus far.
The search for more bodies will continue as the expedition to the area is on till October 10.
Malkhan Singh was identified by a voucher found in his pocket, and Narayan Singh and Charan by the paybooks they were carrying, Hindustan Times has learnt. The families of the personnel have been informed of the recovery of bodies.
The wreckage of the Soviet-origin military transport aircraft, which crashed on February 7, 1968, was first sighted in 2003 by mountaineers from the Manali-based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), and nine bodies have been recovered thus far. Five bodies were recovered by 2019
The doomed aircraft had taken off from Chandigarh and was on its way to Leh.
After the wreckage was found 21 years ago, the army’s mountaineering teams, most of them with hardy men from the Dogra Scouts, mounted a series of search missions including the ones in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2019.
“The (latest) mission, led by the Dogra Scouts of Indian Army in collaboration with representatives of Tiranga Mountain Rescue (TMR), is part of the larger Chandra Bhaga mountain expedition. The joint team has recovered the remains of four more individuals from the site, marking a significant success in one of India’s longest-running search and recovery operations,” said one of the officials cited above.
Narayan Singh was from the Garhwal region, while Charan hailed from Kerala.
On September 18, the Indian Army signed a memorandum of understanding with TMR in the presence of army chief General Upendra Dwivedi. The MoU seeks to sharpen the army’s capabilities for rescue and survival operations in mountains. It stipulates that TMR will collaborate with the army in conducting customised training programmes for its instructors, aimed at improving their ability to mentor troops in avalanche rescue and survival skills.
The Chandra Bhaga expedition has once again demonstrated the army’s determination to bring closure to the victims’ families after almost six decades, said a second official. The men from Dogra Scouts, known for their expertise in high-altitude operations, have led this mission with exemplary courage, battling extreme weather conditions and hostile terrain to recover the remains of their fallen comrades, he said.
This discovery also stands testament to the commitment of TMR, which has been instrumental in assisting the army during the expedition, the officials said. The recovery of these bodies will bring solace to the families who have been waiting for closure for decades, they added.
While the AN-12’s wreckage was first sighted in 2003, major portions of the aircraft, including aero engines, fuselage, fuel tank unit and a cockpit door, were recovered five years ago by an army-led mountaineering team.
