Villagers claim to spot MiG plane wreckage; search hampered
Villagers claim to spot MiG plane wreckage; search hampered | idrw.org
While the administration and army chopper could not locate the wreckage of MiG-29 plane of Indian Air Force (IAF) that crashed on Tuesday night around 8.30 pm, five villagers under Thirot panchayat have claimed to have traced the debris on Thursday evening.
Jagdish Sharma, pradhan of Thirot panchayat who along with four other villagers had climbed the mountain to locate the remains of the plane, said they have found the tyre and other parts of the aircraft around 500 metre below the Chokhang peak.
"We have found a tyre, a bearing-type equipment and two yellow and blue small boxes. Other parts of the plane are lying around 500 metre above the place, where we found these things," claimed Sharma.
Sharma and his team have carried other parts with them while they left the tyre at the spot as it was too heavy to carry and weather too turned hostile. "It was snowing and visibility was turning poor so we had to return to Thirot," said Sharma.
Others villagers who managed to reach near the accident site include Subhash, Sudershan, Rajinder of Jholing village and Avinash of Sendhwari village. They had started around 7am from Thirot village and reached near the spot of mishap around 3pm.
Sharma said that one spot near the peak had turned black as it seemed that the plane had crashed at that point and explosion discoloured it. "We are going to inform the local police station and SP Lahaul-Spiti about the recovery we have made," he added.
Earlier, heavy snowfall and dense dark clouds on mountains had hampered IAF's search operation to locate the wreckage.
Few minutes after six helicopters – two from Keylong and four from Ladakh – had taken off in search of the remains, they landed back as it was not possible for them to continue the operation in heavy snowfall, low visibility and gusty winds, police said. IAF sources at the spot said search from land is out of question as the hills are extremely rugged and treacherous. Meanwhile, Air Force Police team has also reached Keylong.
But with every passing moment, possibility of rescuing the pilot is fading away. Initially, it was being expected that the pilot may have ejected safely before the crash. But according to search and rescue experts, it would be a tough task for a pilot to stay alive while being surrounded by blizzards. Meteorological department Shimla said the minimum temperature in Keylong (Lahaul-Spiti), which is at 10,900 feet, was recorded at 3.1 degrees celsius. The temperature on high altitude peaks (between 13,000 and 18,000 feet), where MiG crashed, is below freezing point.
Keylong deputy superintendent of police Khajana Ram said due to rough weather, aerial search operation was suspended on Thursday. "IAF, Indian Army, police and some trekkers are searching for the wreckage from Lahaul valley, Bharmour in Chamba and Zanskar region of Ladakh. More teams of army have arrived. As peaks are inaccessible, entire operation is fully dependent on aerial recce," he said.
It was 8.30pm on Tuesday when two MiG-29s were undergoing night-flying exercise between Adampur and Leh airbase. One of them landed safely on Adampur airbase but the other crashed.