Even after four decades, the air crash mystery of Antonov-12 aircraft - Bravo Lima - of the Indian Air Force’s 25 Squadron remains unsolved as the 22-member Army expedition-Punaruthan-IV- returned “empty-handed”. The expedition failed to retrieve the mortal remains of 98 Army personnel and the black box of the aircraft. The failure has once again belied the Army’s hope to ascertain the exact cause of the mishap that took place at the height of 20,500 ft on February 7, 1968.
Dogra scouts team led by Major Vasudevan returned “empty-handed” in the third week of August. They were not able to retrieve anything from the 2-km wide wreckage site of upper South Dhaga glacier located at the height 20,500 ft in the Chandrabhaga (CB) -13 and Chandrabhagan (CB) -14 peaks.
The Army continues to be haunted by the crash mystery as “it has failed to sooth wounds of the kin of the ill-fated 98 Army personnel, including four army officers and six crew members from IAF and an officer from DRDO.
The recent expedition has exposed gaping holes as the Army “did not take clues from climbers from the Atal Bihari Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (ABVIMAS), Manali. It was the 45-member ABVIMAS expedition that had spotted the wreckage site in August 2003. In fact, a previous ABVIMAS expedition had spotted wreckage site way back in August 1987 and reported the same to the Defense Ministry but no expedition was launched then, say ABVIMAS climbers.
ID Sharma, an instructor at ABVIMAS, says the expedition had brought back documents from the coat of a jawan, later identified as Beli Ram, from the wreckage site in August 2003. “We saw burnt caps, pieces of uniform, wings of plane and torn tyres scattered over about 2 km wide glaciated area at the base of CB-13 peak,” they said.
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