Dehradun:
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 three are still missing.
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 mission 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 were searching for the bodies since last evening and through the night. 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 area.
(Uttarakhand: 5000 still stranded, rescue ops to focus on Badrinath, Harsil)Weapons were air-dropped for their protection against wild bears in the area as they conduct their search.
The bodies will be taken to Guptkashi and then to Dehradun for post-mortem by this evening.
Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne has 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.