Himachal Pradesh: Mountaineers find dead soldier's body from 1968 plane-crash
A team of mountaineers in Himachal Pradesh's Dhaka Glacier base-camp stumbled upon a dead soldier's body and wrecked parts of an IAF plane, which crashed in the state's Spiti Valley 50-years-ago. IAF's AN-12 aircraft, built by the erstwhile Soviet Union, had gone missing on February 7, 1968, after the pilot decided to retreat while on way to Leh from Chandigarh because of inclement weather.
The team was on a cleaning expedition
The plane was reportedly over Rohtang Pass when it made its last radio contact. The team of mountaineers, which made this startling discovery, was on a garbage clean-up expedition to Chandrabhaga-13 peak in Himachal Pradesh from July 1 to 15.
Soldier's frozen body had hair and hand intact
"We were somewhat taken aback when we found the remains of the wrecked aircraft as well as the decayed body of a soldier at Dhaka Glacier," Rajiv Rawat, who led the expedition team, said. He said the frozen body of the soldier was lying with its head down. The hand and hair were almost intact despite fifty years of the crash.
Army authorities were sent pictures and videos of the discovery
Rawat said that the startling discovery was made on July 11 but the army authorities were informed about it only after the team reached the first road head on its way back on July 15. "We did not touch anything, but took pictures and made a video and forwarded them to the army authorities," the team leader said.
Team had read about the crash earlier
When asked what made them conclude that the wreckage was that of the IAF plane, which crashed in February 1968 and the body was that of a soldier, Rawat said they had read about the crash in the area while preparing for the expedition.
It was like a bolt from the blue: Rawat
It was confirmed that the body belonged to a soldier after we saw a bag which is used by soldiers to carry magazines, the team leader said. "However, what we found was like a bolt from the blue as fifty long years had elapsed since the crash and discovering its remains was the furthest from our minds," Rawat said.
Rawat explains why it was discovered now
Rawat explained that less snowfall in the higher altitudes may be a reason why things buried long-under snow were coming to the surface. He said wrecked parts and the bodies must be spread over an area of 2-2.5km. The clean-up expedition was organized jointly by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and the ONGC to collect garbage left in high altitudes by tourists and climbers.
