FATAL FLIGHT
February 7, 1968: An AN-12 aircraft of the Indian Air Force carrying troops and supplies from Chandigarh to Leh goes missing in icy terrain. Belonging to Chandigarh-based 25 Squadron, the plane commanded by flight lieutenant HK Singh, lost contact with air traffic control amid bad weather and vanished into thin air while flying over Rohtang Pass.
1968-2003: After it disappears without a trace, conspiracy theories floated for 35 years. Western Command headquarters says halfway into the flight, the pilot decided to turn back due to the inclement weather over Jammu and Kashmir. The last radio contact was near Rohtang Pass.
2003: Expedition team from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, spots the wreckage scattered all over Dhaka glacier. The team of mountaineers finds the body and identity card of a soldier, Beli Ram of Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir. He was identified through his boarding pass found in the pocket. It was in a plastic packet. He was cremated with military honours.
August 9, 2007: The Indian Army’s Dogra Scouts launch an expedition and find three bodies, including that of Arjun Singh of Pune, near Chandrabhaga peak. The Western Command expedition comprised the country’s finest mountaineers, including one who had climbed the Everest. Search called off in 2009.
August 22, 2013: Army embarks on another expedition to locate mortal remains of its fallen comrades and to also recover the flight data recorder (black box). The team recovers the mortal remains of havaldar Jagmail Singh of the Corps of EME. An identity disk, an insurance policy and a letter from his family retrieved from his pocket helped in identification.
July 16, 2018: Mountaineers on a clean-up expedition stumble upon the remains of a soldier along with debris of the plane on the 6,200-metre-high Chandrabhaga peak overlooking the Lahaul valley. Team leader Rajeev Rawat finds soldier’s body a few metres away from plane debris. Army’s High Altitude Warfare School alerted and search begins in the area.