50 years after AN-12 aircraft crash, cleanliness drive crew discovers soldier's body in Lahaul Valley

An Indian Air Force AN-12 aircraft crashed in the Lahaul valley of Himachal Pradesh with 102 personnel on it fifty years ago in 1968. Skip forward to 2018 and a mountaineering crew has discovered the body of one of the soldiers along with scattered pieces of the aircraft.

Himachal Pradesh: During a cleanliness drive organised by Indian Mountaineering Foundation, a body of one of the victims of 1968 Indian Air Force plane crash was found along with some parts of the aircraft at the Dhaka glacier base camp on July 1. pic.twitter.com/VXLdKLpO6r

— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2018

The discovery was made by a mountaineering crew during a cleanliness drive organised by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation on July 1 at the Dhaka glacier base camp.

“We first found some parts of an aircraft. Subsequently, our team members spotted the decayed body of a soldier a few metres away,” said team leader Rajeev Rawat.

“Our team took pictures of the body and the plane wreckage, and alerted the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School on July 16, after which they have begun search operations in the area,” Rawat said.

AN-12 aircraft with 98 passengers and four crew members went missing on February 1968 following pilot’s decision to take a U-turn due to poor weather. The last radio contact with the flight was near Rohtang pass.

In 2003, debris of the aircraft was found in the South Dhaka glacier.