More Troops Join In Iaf Mission To Located Mig 29 Wreckage

[ROUDRAM]

New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) Stepping up its nearly two week long search operation, the IAF has roped in more troops from the Army including expert mountaineers to locate the crashed MiG 29 fighter at a possible wreckage site in Lahaul area in Himachal Pradesh. "We have identified a particular area at an altitude of over 15,000 feet in Lahaul and joint Indian Air Force and Army search teams are scanning the area," IAF officials said here. There has been no word on the fate of the pilot Squadron Leader D S Tomar, who had recently completed the fighter combat leadership course. The crash occured on the night of October 18 when the pilot was executing a turn during a night-flying exercise in high altitude terrain. The IAF is getting help from over 100 troops from Army's High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS), 17 Engineers regiment, 3 Ladakh Scouts battalion and 11 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles battalion. The troops were recently deployed for the search operations in the area, which is always vulnerable to avalanches. The IAF had managed to locate some parts of the crashed aircraft with the help of Army and local villagers but not much success has been achieved in locating the main wreckage It has deployed its unmanned aerial vehicles and fighter aircraft such as the SU-30MKI and the Jaguars to locate the aircraft and has flown close to 160 sorties for the search mission.

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