The bodies were found by a joint team comprising personnel from the Dogra Scouts of the Indian Army and Tiranga Mountain Rescue.
The bodies were found by a joint team comprising personnel from the Dogra Scouts of the Indian Army and Tiranga Mountain Rescue.
“In an extraordinary development, the ongoing search and rescue mission to recover the remains of personnel from the AN-12 aircraft, which crashed on Rohtang Pass in 1968, has achieved significant breakthroughs,” said an official.
Wreckage Found After Decades
The wreckage was first discovered in 2003 by mountaineers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering, sparking multiple expeditions over the years by the Indian Army, especially the Dogra Scouts which have been at the forefront of search missions in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2019.
Only five bodies of the victims were recovered by 2019 in view of the treacherous conditions and unforgiving terrain of the crash site, according to officials.
The Chandra Bhaga Mountain Expedition has now recovered four more bodies, bringing renewed hope to the families of the victims and the nation. The three out of four bodies are of Malkhan Singh, Sepoy Narayan Singh and Craftsman Thomas Charan, the officials said.
Mayank Chaudhary, Superintendent of Police of the Lahaul-Spiti district, confirmed on Monday evening to ANI that information about the discovery had been received through a satellite phone from the Army expedition team. This team was conducting a mountaineering expedition in the remote and challenging region of CB-13 (Chandrabhaga-13 Peak), near Batal in Lahaul-Spiti.