A plane full of soldiers disappeared in 1968, the debris was found in 2003 and now these 4 bodies... the story of the country's longest rescue operation

56 years ago, in 1968, an Indian Air Force plane met with an accident near Rohtang Pass. There were 102 people on board the plane. Its wreckage was found in 2003. Even today, the search for people is going on. It is called the country's longest rescue operation and now the Indian Army has achieved great success in it. It has recovered four bodies from the accident site in Himachal Pradesh.

On 7 February 1968, the AN-12 aircraft took off from Chandigarh to Leh but went missing shortly after. The plane crashed after encountering bad weather near the Rohtang Pass and the bodies and remains of the victims remained in the snowy area for decades. Meanwhile, the search and rescue operation of the Indian Army led by the Dogra Scouts continued.

Mountaineers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering first discovered the wreckage in 2003, following which several expeditions were carried out by the Indian Army, particularly the Dogra Scouts. Despite the extreme conditions and difficult terrain, only five bodies had been recovered from the site until 2019. Now four more bodies have been recovered, taking the total number to nine. Of the four bodies recovered, three have been identified.

How were the bodies identified?

The three bodies that have been identified are Malkhan Singh, Sepoy Narayan Singh, Thomas Charan. Malkhan Singh (Pioneer) was identified from the voucher found in his pocket. Sepoy Narayan Singh (Army Medical Corps) was identified from the paybook found in his pocket. Similarly, Thomas Charan of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) was also identified from his paybook. The fourth body is being identified. The army says that the search operation will continue till October 10.

How did the accident happen?

As dawn broke in Chandigarh on the winter day of 7 February 1968, an Antonov-12 transport plane of the Indian Air Force's 25 Squadron took off from the fog-covered runway and headed for Leh. The plane was carrying 98 army personnel and four crew members who were headed to Leh to join their duty.

At around 6.55 am, the pilot informed the air traffic control in Chandigarh about his return due to bad weather, but three minutes later the plane lost contact with ATC. It disappeared in the Lahaul and Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh bordering China. No emergency call came from the cockpit. After this, the Indian Air Force helicopter was deployed for the search operation, but it did not get any success for a week.

Indian Air Force aircraft AN 12 (Photo- IAF)

There was no information about the plane. Various things were coming to people's minds. There were many rumours too. It was even said that the plane might have got lost in Pakistan or China. The family of Flight Lieutenant Man Singh Bains, the navigator of the crashed plane, has not performed his last rites till date. Bains' wife Parminder went to Canada with her son, while his parents left this world waiting for their missing son.

The wreckage of the plane was found in 2003

In 2003, mountaineers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering discovered the wreckage of the plane. After this, the army, especially the Dogra Scouts, conducted several expeditions. The Dogra Scouts were at the forefront of the search operations conducted in 2005, 2006, 2013 and 2019. The army decided to launch a 15-day expedition every year to locate the remains.

The weather here is a big challenge in the search operation. The temperature sometimes drops to minus 15 degrees Celsius and due to frequent bad weather, the search could be carried out only in the early days of August and that too from morning to afternoon. Some investigators believe that many bodies may be trapped in the plane, but an army officer said that the plane may have disintegrated into small pieces.

The body was found in July 2018

In July 2018, a mountaineering expedition found parts of the plane along with the body of one of the soldiers on board. The discovery was made by a team of mountaineers who were on a scavenging expedition on Chandrabhaga-13 peak on July 1. The remains were found at the Dhaka Glacier Base Camp, 6,200 metres above sea level. Earlier in August 2007, the army had recovered three more bodies from the site.