Defense PRO, Thiruvananthapuram
Cherian Thomas was 22 when he disappeared
That phone call ended a decades-long wait – 56 years and eight months to be precise.
The caller, who came from a police station in Pathanamthitta district in the southern Indian state of Kerala, delivered unexpected news to Thomas Thomas: the body of his elder brother, Thomas Cherian, was finally found.
Cherian, an Army craftsman, was among 102 passengers on board an Indian Air Force plane that crashed in the Himalayas in 1968 after encountering extreme weather conditions.
The plane disappeared from radar while flying over the Rohtang Pass, which connects the northern state of Himachal Pradesh to Indian-administered Kashmir.
For years, the IAF's AN-12 aircraft was missing and its fate remained a mystery.
Then in 2003, a team of mountaineers found the body of one of the passengers.
In the years that followed, Army search expeditions discovered eight more bodies, and in 2019, the wreckage of the plane was recovered from the mountains.
A few days ago, the 1968 accident made headlines again when the army recovered four bodies, including that of Cherian.
When the news reached the family, it was as if “the suffocation of 56 years had suddenly evaporated”, Mr Thomas told BBC Hindi.
“I was finally able to breathe again,” he said.
Cherian, the second of five children, was only 22 when he disappeared. He had boarded the plane to go to his first posting in the Himalayan region of Leh.
It was not until 2003, when the first body was found, that his status was changed from missing to dead.
“Our father died in 1990 and our mother in 1998, both waiting for news of their missing son,” says Mr. Thomas.
Defense PRO, Thiruvananthapuram
A coffin with the body of Thomas Cherian was brought to Kerala state for his last rites
In total, only 13 bodies have been found so far at the accident site.
The region's harsh weather conditions and icy terrain make it difficult for research teams to carry out expeditions.
The bodies of Cherian and three others – Narayan Singh, Malkan Singh and Munshiram – were found 16,000 feet above sea level, near the Dhaka glacier. The latest operation was carried out jointly by the Dogra Scouts – a unit of the Indian Army's Dogra Regiment – and members of the Tiranga Mountain Rescue.
Authorities used satellite images, Recco radar and drones to locate the bodies, said Colonel Lalit Palaria, commander of the Dogra Scouts.
Recco radar, capable of detecting metal objects buried in snow about 20 meters deep, identified debris from the plane in the area.
The team then manually searched the wreckage and found a body.
Three other bodies were found in the glacier's crevasses.
It was the tag on Cherian's uniform – “Thomas C”, with only the C in his last name visible – as well as a document in his pocket that helped authorities identify him.
Asif Ali
Jaiveer Singh (in a green T-shirt) at the funeral of his uncle, Narayan Singh
His family says that while the grief of his loss will never go away, they are relieved to finally have closure.
On October 3, authorities handed over Cherian's coffin, draped in the Indian flag, to his family. A funeral service was held at a church in their village of Elanthoor a day later.
Mr. Thomas says that during all the years of waiting, army officials told them that the search was still ongoing and that they would inform them when they found Cherian's body.
“We really appreciate that they kept us informed all these years,” he says, adding that many other extended family members joined the armed forces even after Cherian's disappearance.
Like the Odalil family, relatives of other soldiers whose bodies were found recently are also feeling grief and relief. Many of their closest relatives, including their parents and spouses, died waiting for news.
In the northern state of Uttarakhand, Jaiveer Singh is still processing the news. He also received the body of his uncle Narayan Singh in early October.
Years after Narayan Singh's disappearance, his family has lost hope. So, with their consent, Singh's wife, Basanti Devi, started a new life with one of her cousins. Jaiveer Singh was one of the children born from this relationship.
He says that for years his mother held out hope for Narayan Singh's return. She died in 2011.
“I don’t even have a photo of my uncle as a souvenir,” he says.
Additional reporting from Asif Ali in Uttarakhand
