Kathua helicopter crash: Body of one of the two missing pilots found

By Anish KumarFirst Published Aug 15, 2021, 10:38 PM IST
Highlights

The mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonel A S Baath have been retrieved on Sunday from the Ranjit Sagar dam in Jammu & Kashmir's Kathua district, 11 days after the Indian Army helicopter he was on board crashed. 

The mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonel A S Baath have been retrieved on Sunday from the Ranjit Sagar dam in Jammu & Kashmir's Kathua district, 11 days after the Indian Army helicopter he was on board crashed. 

The remains were retrieved from a depth of 75.9m at 1819 hours from the dam. 

Efforts are on to retrieve the mortal remains of Captain Jayant Joshi, the second pilot of the helicopter.

A few days ago, the wreckage of the helicopter was identified after continuous search and rescue operations for over a week. 

As per the Indian Army's Western Command, the remains of the helicopter was found at a depth of 80m of the Ranjit Sagar dam. 

The Indian Army has availed of international assistance, which includes specialised equipment and divers, for search and rescue operations. 

On Tuesday, the Indian Army had said that it is leaving no stone unturned to trace the helicopter crew. 

In a statement, the Indian Army said that experts, specialised equipment and divers had been flown in for the search and rescue operation and that no efforts were being spared in that direction.

In the search operation, expertise and equipment of the three services, national and state disaster relief forces, non-profit organisations, state police, dam authority and private firms from across the country have been pressed into action.

Special sonar equipment was also flown in from Kochi to carry out further operations at the incident spot, which is 25 km long, 8 km wide and over 500 feet deep.

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