Gauchar:
Commandos searching the narrow valley where a helicopter crashed in Uttarakhand with 20 people on board, have found five more bodies today. 12 had been located on Tuesday evening, so 17 bodies have now been recovered.
Five of those killed were from the Air Force; the others belonged to the National Disaster Response Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.The Russian-made Mi-17 crashed while it was heading back from a rescue mision to Kedarnath, the part of Uttarakhand that took the worst beating in the flash floods and landslides which have killed at least 1,000 since June 15. (
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38 commandos are now searching for the three remaining bodies. 26 commandos from the Army's special forces reached the site of the crash by foot this morning. 12 elite Garud commandos descended from helicopters down ropes to access the difficult terrain. Weapons were air-dropped today for their protection against wild bears in the area as they conduct their search.
Once all the 20 bodies have been found, they will be pulled up into helicopters with ropes, one by one - a painstaking and delicate process - and will then be flown to Uttarakhand capital Dehradun for post-mortem.
There was no distress call from the chopper before it went down on Tuesday evening. Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the crashed helicopter have been recovered. It's not clear yet if the crash was caused by bad weather or technical problems, he said.
"Our men take calculated risks, that is their job," he told reporters of the challenges his soldiers are confronting in rescuing thousands of people by foot and air from remote regions despite rain, whorls of mist, and tough Himalayan terrain. (
Our rotors won't stop turning: Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne)
With 60 helicopters in service in Uttarakhand and about 90,000 people already air-evacuated, this is the largest ever relief and rescue operation for the Air Force.