Body of 1968 plane crash victim found after 56 years

KERALA – A family's 56-year-long wait finally ended when the body of their relative, who died in a 1968 plane crash, was discovered by the police.

According to the BBC, the victim's brother, Thomas, received a call from the police in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, South India, informing him that the remains of his brother, Thomas Cherian, had been found.

“When this news reached the family, the anxiety and ‘tightness’ we felt for the past 56 years suddenly disappeared,” Thomas told BBC Hindi on Wednesday.

Cherian was one of the 102 passengers aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft that crashed in the Himalayas in 1968 due to bad weather.

The first body from the crash was discovered in 2003, and over the years, the military found eight more bodies.

In 2019, wreckage from the aircraft was uncovered in the mountainous area.

Recently, the 1968 crash drew attention again when the military found four more bodies, including that of Cherian.

At the time of his disappearance, Cherian was only 22 years old and was the second of five siblings.

Officials used satellite imagery, radar, and drones to locate the bodies.

Colonel Lalit Palaria said that radar technology enabled the team to detect metal objects buried under approximately 20 metres of snow, identifying wreckage in the area.

The team then dug through the debris manually, uncovering one body and retrieving three more from the glacier crevices.

One of the bodies was identified as Cherian’s because his uniform had a name tag reading ‘Thomas C,’ and identification documents were found in his pocket.