1968 IAF crash: Closure for India families as four bodies found 56 years after plane crash

It was a mobile phone that ended a decades-long delay- of 56 years and eight months, to get specific.

The visitor, from a police stop in Pathanamthitta area in the southern Indian state of Kerala, gave surprising news to Thomas Thomas- the body of his elder brother, Thomas Cherian, had suddenly been found.

Cherian, an infantry carpenter, was among 102 passengers on board an Indian Air Force plane that crashed in the Himalayas in 1968 after encountering extreme weather conditions.

The aircraft lost its sensor as it passed over the Rohtang move, which connects Himachal Pradesh’s north state to Indian-administered Kashmir.

For decades, the IAF AN-12 plane was listed as missing and its death remained a riddle.

Therefore in 2003, a group of climbers found the body of one of the people.

Eight more systems have been discovered by troops search teams since then, and in 2019 the plane’s aircraft has been recovered from the hills.

A few days ago, the 1968 accident once again made headlines when the troops recovered four systems, including that of Cherian.

When the news reached the family, it felt like” the suffocation of 56 years had suddenly evaporated”, Mr Thomas told BBC Hindi.

” I was eventually able to breathe again”, he says.

Cherian, the second of five youngsters, was only 22 years old when he went missing. He had boarded the plane to travel to his second industry assignment in Leh, Himalayan.

His status changed from lost to lifeless until the first body was discovered in 2003.

” Our dad died in 1990 and our family in 1998, both waiting for news about their lost child”, says Mr Thomas.

Altogether, only 13 systems have been recovered until now from the page of the accident.

Search teams there are unable to conduct expeditions due to the region’s snowy ground and harsh weather conditions.

Near the Dhaka ice, the body of Cherian and three other people, Narayan Singh, Malkan Singh, and Munshiram, were discovered 16, 000 feet above sea level. The Dogra Scouts, a division of the American army’s Dogra army, and members of Tiranga Mountain Rescue joined forces to carry out the most recent procedure.

Officers used satellite pictures, a Recco radar and robots to find the body, says Colonel Lalit Palaria, commanding officer of the Dogra Scouts.

Wreckage from the airplane in the area was discovered by the Recco sensor, which can detect silver items buried in the snow at depths of about 20 meters.

The crew then personally discovered one figure by digging through the shipwreck.

In the glacier’s canyons, three more bodies were discovered.

The badge on Cherian’s uniform read” Thomas C,” with only the C of his last name accessible noticeable, along with a document in his pocket that assisted authorities in locating him.

His family claims that while the loss of him could not go away, they are relieved to finally receive some rest.

On 3 October, authorities handed over Cherian’s tomb, draped in the American flag, to his home. A death service was held at a church in their town Elanthoor, a day later.

Army officials informed them that the research was still ongoing and that they would notify them when Cherian’s body was discovered, according to Mr. Thomas, despite all the years of waiting.

” We truly appreciate that they kept us posted all these times,” he says, noting that many other extended family members had joined the military yet before Cherian’s removal.

The family of the other troops whose bodies were recently discovered are also dealing with the pain and pleasure, just like the Odalil household. Some of their closest friends, including parents and caregivers, died waiting for news of them.

In the northeastern state of Uttarakhand, Jaiveer Singh is also processing the information. He even received his brother Narayan Singh’s system in early October.

Decades after Narayan Singh went missing, his relatives lost hope. But with their consent, Singh’s family, Basanti Devi, began a new lifestyle with one of his relatives. Jaiveer Singh was one of the children born of that connection.

He says that for centuries, his mother held on to hope of Narayan Singh’s profit. She died in 2011.

” I do n’t even have a photo of my uncle as a memory”, he says.

More reporting by Asif Ali in Uttarakhand