The mortal remains of the 13 air warriors who had lost their lives due to the crash of IAF’s AN-32 aircraft on June 3 are being brought to the Jorhat airbase in stages.
Defence PRO Wing Commander Ratnakar Singh on Friday said that the IAF mountaineers, Army Special Forces personnel and local mountaineers were dropped off at the closest possible location to the crash site and have reached the crash site.
“The mortal remains and other material evidence have to be picked up by helicopters and brought back to Jorhat in stages,” he said adding that weather continued to be marginal and is likely to affect the pace of recovery operations.
“The recovery team is braving the treacherous terrain and inclement weather in order to bring back the mortal remains as soon as possible,” he added.
The IAF has flown around 200 sorties towards the AN-32 search and recovery operations and is sparing no efforts in recovering the remains of its personnel for which 8 helicopters have been deployed.
The next of kin of all personnel on board had been informed of the crash and the subsequent search operations undertaken by the IAF.
Concerned family members have been apprised of the progress of the recovery operations as well and IAF officials are in regular touch with them.
The IAF and all its personnel stand with the families in this hour of grief.
Singh further said that the team of mountaineers recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) and are being brought back to the air base.