IANS

New Delhi, Aug 12: Bodies of three victims of an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane, which was crashed nearly four decades ago, had been located in a remote Himalayan valley and flown to an air base in north India, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

The mortal remains of three soldiers killed in the AN-12 crash in 1968 were recovered from a height of 17,500 feet in a valley in Lahaul & Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh and moved to Chandigarh by helicopters on Friday.

Thus far, the bodies of only four of the 102 Indian Army and IAF personnel who perished in the crash have been recovered. The body of one soldier was found in 2003.

Code-named Operation Punaruthan-III, an Indian Army expedition to the crash site found the three bodies on August 2 near the 20,500-foot high Chandrabhaga peak. The expedition, led by Major Nishant Kumar of the Dogra Scouts, stumbled upon the remains after a detailed search of the area for about five days, a Defence Ministry statement said.

"Efforts are being made to confirm the identity of the deceased soldiers from the documents and identity cards recovered along with the bodies. Thereafter, their next of kin will be intimated," the statement added.

The AN-12 took off from Chandigarh on February 7, 1968, on a routine logistics sortie with 102 people on board and was bound for Leh in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The aircraft was not able to negotiate the bad weather en route and hit the 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," the statement.

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 in Kashmir and cremated with full military honours.

"Subsequently, the Army has launched expeditions every summer to recover the bodies of the lost soldiers. However, these operations had not yielded any positive results during the past three attempts," the statement said.