Pilot’s body recovered, search on for co-pilot
Remains of Lieutenant Colonel AS Baath, who belonged to Amritsar, were retrieved from a depth of 75.9 metres on Sunday
INDIAN AIR FORCE HAD BROUGHT EQUIPMENT FROM VISAKHAPATNAM FOR SPEEDING UP THE UNDERWATER SEARCH OPERATION
JAMMU: Body of one of the two pilots of army’s Rudra helicopter that crashed into Ranjit Sagar Dam in Jammu on August 3 was recovered on Sunday evening after 12 days of intensive search operations, authorities said.
“Body of the pilot, lieutenant colonel AS Baath, was retrieved from the Ranjit Sagar lake around 6.30 pm on Sunday. Searches for the co-pilot, (a captain) are on,” said Kathua district police chief SSP Ramesh Chander Kotwal.
Defence spokesman lieutenant colonel Devender Anand said that mortal remains of the army officer, who belonged to Amritsar, were retrieved from a depth of 75.9 metres at 1819h (6.19 pm) and efforts were on to locate the remains of the co-pilot. On Saturday a defence spokesman said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) had brought heavy equipment from Visakhapatnam to Pathankot for speeding up the underwater search operation involving army, navy, air force, national disaster response force (NDRF), Ranjit Sagar Dam Authority, district authorities and locals.
Earlier, the wreckage of the chopper was located at a depth of nearly 80 metres in the vast lake on August 11, nine days after the helicopter crashed into the dam in Basohli area of Kathua district while on a routine training sortie. The Ranjit Sagar dam is 25km long, 8km wide and more than 500 feet deep. The families of the two pilots have been camping at Mamun cantonment on Pathankot. The Rudra helicopter crashed into the dam lake near Pathankot on August 3 around 10.43 am. Built at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the chopper was carrying out a training sortie that involved low-level flying over the lake.
The helicopter belonged to Army’s Pathankot-based 254 ALH-WSI squadron, which also lost a Rudra chopper in January 2021.