PTC News Desk: An Indian Army team has found the mortal remains of four soldiers from the wreckage of an AN-12 aircraft that crashed in the Lahaul valley of Himachal Pradesh in 1968.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft was carrying 102 Army soldiers and was on a routine flight from Chandigarh to Leh when it crashed over five decades ago.

With this, a Kerala family's decades-long wait for closure was finally over.

One of the four bodies discovered by the mountaineering teams was identified as Thomas Cherian of Kerala's Pathanamthitta district. 

Cherian, then 22, was the second of Odalil Thomas and Eliyamma's five children. Cherian, a bachelor, joined the Army as a craftsman after completing a pre-university program in Pathanamthitta.

"We don't know how to explain the situation. We are both happy and sad," one of Cheriyan's siblings said. The siblings said they were not expecting to be able to say a formal goodbye to their beloved brother decades after his death. "I was only 12 years old when the aircraft crashed. I still have vivid memories of my brother. He used to bring us so many things when he came home," Cheriyan's sister explained.

The family is relieved now that they will be able to do all of his last rites, she said.

"We consider the recovery of his mortal remains as a great blessing. We thank God for this," she stated, adding that he will be buried in their local parish.

One of his younger siblings also expressed sincere happiness and gratitude to the Army and the nation for showing such concern and respect for the soldiers.

1968 IAF plane crash

The plane took off from Chandigarh and was on its way to Leh when it encountered severe weather and crashed into the steep terrain of the Lahaul Valley. Despite several searches over the years, many of the bodies and debris remained lost in the high-altitude, snow-covered area.

In 2018, the wreckage of the aircraft and one soldier's body was recovered near the 6,200-meter-high Dhaka glacier base camp. This recovery was made by a team of mountaineers as part of a clean-up expedition to the Chandrabhaga-13 peak that began on July 1, 2018.

The wreckage and bodies were identified over many days in mid-July of that year.

Now, 56 years after the tragic crash, the recent recovery of the four soldiers' bodies marks a significant milestone in the ongoing attempt to honour those fallen soldiers' memories and give closure to the families devastated by the disaster.