New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday said it had recovered all 13 bodies from the site where an AN-32 crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3.
The wreckage of the aircraft was located at a remote place on June 11 and since then efforts had been on reach the site and recover the bodies, an official said. The plane was carrying 13 IAF personnel from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh.
The search operation to retrieve the mortal remains was hampered due to inclement weather in the area, the IAF had said on Saturday.
Seven bodies were recovered a week ago and six more bodies were found by Thursday. Mortal remains of three Keralites - Squadron leader Vinod, Sergeant Anup Kumar, and Corporal N K Sharin- will reach Thiruvananthapuram Air Force Station technical area Friday morning around 3 am.
The IAF said that Cheetah and ALH helicopters had to be put on stand-by to commence the operations once the weather improved.
Earlier, the search teams had recovered the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh.
A team of 16 mountaineers from the IAF and the Indian Army along with five civilian mountaineers combed the site of crash 16 km north of Lipo, northeast of Tato under West Siang district, at an approximate elevation of 12,000 feet.
The AN-32 took off on June 3 from the Jorhat airbase for the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal's Shi-Yomi district bordering China, but lost contact with the ground agencies within 35 minutes.
After the disappearance of the aircraft, the IAF had commenced extensive search operations under the direct supervision of the Eastern Air Command headquarters at Shillong.
