35 yrs after 98 men & their machine went down, someone’s going up to look

At an altitude of 16,000 feet, under the gigantic frozen expanse of the Dhaka Glacier, for 35 years, a secret has been buried: of 98 men and...

At an altitude of 16,000 feet, under the gigantic frozen expanse of the Dhaka Glacier, for 35 years, a secret has been buried: of 98 men and their flying machine. In recent years, tiny bits and pieces have slipped out: a belt, a beret, a notebook, all impeccably preserved. Tomorrow, a mission begins to help put these pieces into place and solve the puzzle itself.

On February 7, 1968, in the skies above Rohtang Pass, an IAF An-12, packed with troops, disappeared without a trace. It was returning to Chandigarh after bad weather shut it out of Leh.

Search teams fanned out in every direction but found nothing. BL-534 of 25 Squadron with 98 on board was declared lost. But now, the lost flight has returned.

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A body has been found and trekkers have returned with clues to show that the An-12 did actually go down in the area.

So the search team, which leaves tomorrow for the glacier, hopes to end the radio silence of the An-12.

I D Sharma, instructor at Manali’s Mountaineering Institute, is the one who returned from the Chandrabagha ranges with the first pieces of this puzzle which when solved could not only bring relief to countless relatives but also rewrite a long forgotten chapter in the IAF history.

Of the clues that Sharma picked up it was the pay book of Sepoy Beli Ram — his name figured in the flight manifest and the book tallied with Army records — that made everyone sit up.

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‘‘His body is still wrapped in an overcoat. It’s been reduced to a skeleton but part of a hand and the lower jaw are still intact,’’ says Sharma. He also brought with him a letter he found there: it’s from Ram Kumar Verma (No. 088358) of 715 Workshop Company, the Corps of EME.

‘‘It’s possible Verma forgot to post the letter and was carrying it. It’s also possible that someone who received the letter was on the plane. I am not sure. But look at the date of the letter. It was written on January 27. The flight disappeared on February 7.’’

He says an Italian expedition returned with a belt in 2001. ‘‘They brought it as a souvenir. The belt had a number: 1165466. The Army or the IAF don’t issue numbers just like that. May be the number can help.’’

Sharma’s colleague Kanwar Singh Verma, who’s also an instructor, will be leading the Army-IAF search team tomorrow. He has no doubts: ‘‘One thing is for sure. This is the same wreck.’’

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He points to a standard Army backpack, the pithoo, recovered from the site. It too has a number: 13931132. ‘‘The Army can find out who was allotted this series and then match it with the regiment code. They probably can zero-in on the man.’’

There are also badges of the Garhwal Rifles, Corps of Signals, Veterinary Corps and Army Ordnance Corps. There are two berets and Beli Ram’s pay book which is an interesting account of his transfers, the movement to Nagaland. There’s an entry which shows him drawing Rs 100 in November 1967 and Rs 280 the month before.

The plane, the institute instructors believe, probably hit the face of CB 13 (6,264 metres) and slid down the Dhaka Glacier. ‘‘What we have found is on the glacier. It’s quite possible that pieces lie along the face of the wall. But that can be a dangerous mission because this is an avalanche-prone area.’’

Whatever the odds, this is one expedition whose return return will be eagerly awaited. After all, flights don’t return after 35 years.