A 22-year-old’s Body Recovered Decades After An Aircraft Crash; Family Gets Closure

22-year-old’s Body Is Found Decades After An Aircraft Crash

Four months after the mortal remains of a Kerala man, who was a survivor in the 1968 Rohtang aircraft crash disentombed in tropical climate in the Lahaul-Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh, closure for a family came on Monday. The mountaineering teams which included the Army’s Dogra Scouts who returned from the Dhaka glacier area where four bodies were found at a height of almost 16000 feet, has identified one of the body Cherian from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district,Thomas Cherian.

It is for the record that Cherian was one of the 101 passengers on the Indian Air Force AN 12 transport plane that crashed in the mountain region of Rohtang on February 7, 1968. He is among the four bodies that the team has pulled out. Cherian who was only 22 years of age at that time was the second born of Odalil Thomas and Eliyamma out of the five siblings. A bachelor, Cherian appeared for a pre-university course in Pathanamthitta and became an Army craftsman. Brother Thomas Thomas said, “It has been a long wait for the family.

We received a message yesterday, that Military officials in Delhi have managed to find Cherian’s body. He had a half burnt book in his pocket of the uniform which had his name besides chest number. We were informed only that it would be handed over in a few days to Kerala after formalities are over,” said Chherian who was posted at Leh and the incident occurred when he was travelling from Chandigarh.

Thomas remember that day the family at Elanthoor got the news through a telegram message. My father was at a nearby market when he received a telegram from the postman informing him that the plane on which Cherian was traveling was missing. He went home hastily; he had some difficulty in speaking at first. That’s the message he shared and then, he fell at home,” said Thomas, now a retiree from BHEL.

The tragedy occurred a few days after the Odalil family received the letter in which Cherian informed them about his posting. It was taken to his home in the transport network and was delivered to his home by the youngest brother Thomas Varghese who was coming from school.

 Thomas said it that has been very long indeed, and rather painful. “ Our father died in 1990 and our mother in 1998. In the last moments of their life, they looked forward to hearing something about their disappeared son. My mother received the family pension till the time she died in 1998. We had been observing his yearly remembrance on February 7, but the death anniversary function has not been held till now, said Thomas.

Later in the year 2003 when the family was informed officially that Cherian was dead the wait was to hear about the recovery of the dead body. Earlier, the Army would go and tell the family after four to five years that the search was still on. “That brought hope for us and we expect news that the body is also recovering,” he said. Members of the Odalil family were serving in the Defence forces in large numbers. Cherian’s elder brother Thomas Mathew was there with the Army at the time of plane crash.

After two years of his death Mathew had to compulsory retire voluntarily due to his parents pressure. Sanju is his son and he himself is colonel with the Army.