3 bodies recovered from 1968 IAF AN-32 crash
Mortal remains of three soldiers, killed in an AN-12 aircrash nearly four decades ago, were recovered from the remote Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh and moved to Chandigarh by helicopters today.
Code named Operation Punaruthan – III, an expedition of the Indian Army into the 1968 crash, retrieved the bodies on 09 August from a glaciated area at an altitude of over 17,500 feet near the Chandrabhaga peak in Lahaul Valley in Lahaul & Spiti district. The expedition, led by Major Nishant Kumar of the Dogra Scouts, stumbled upon the remains on 02 August after a detailed search of the area for about five days.
Efforts are being made to confirm the identity of the deceased soldiers from the documents and identity cards recovered along with the bodies. Thereafter, the next of kin of the deceased soldiers will be intimated.
The AN-12 aircraft of the Indian Air Force had taken off from Chandigarh on Feb 07, 1968 on a routine logistics sortie with 102 persons on board to Leh. The aircraft was not able to negotiate the bad weather enroute and hit the towering 6264-meter high Chandrabhaga peak. There were no survivors of the crash and a detailed search of the area could not even find the remains of the aircraft.
It was only in July 2003 that an expedition from the Manali Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports discovered the wreckage site. The team also found the mortal remains and documents of one victim, - Pioneer Beli Ram. His remains were moved to his native village in Akhnoor and cremated with full military honours.
Subsequently, the army has launched expeditions every summer to recover bodies of the lost soldiers. However, these operations had not yielded any positive results during the past three attempts.