Gauchar:
A day after a helicopter crashed while on a rescue mission in Uttarakhand, killing all 20 people on board, the air force today vowed that its operations to locate and assist thousands who remain stranded in the state will continue.
"I met the boys today and I told them our rotors will not stop turning," said Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne. "We have to finish the mission and finish it right. We will make sure that the job is done," he pledged.
The helicopter that crashed on Tuesday afternoon into the side of a mountain was one of three flying back from Kedranath, the epicenter of the disaster. On board were five air force personnel, six men from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and nine from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). (
The heroes who died)
12 bodies were found yesterday. Another five were located today by a group of commandos, including the elite Garuds, who slid down ropes from helicopters to reach the site of the crash.After all the bodies have been found, they will be pulled up into helicopters with ropes - a painstaking and delicate process - and will then be flown to the state capital of Dehradun.
In a moving tribute, the Air Force said in a statement," You are now a guiding beacon in our deeds." A postscript says "We will rest, but only after the rescue mission."
(Read: Air Force tribute to officers who died)
There was no distress call from the chopper before it went down on Tuesday evening. Its cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered. It's not clear yet if the crash was caused by bad weather or technical problems, the air chief said.
Officials said close to 100,000 people have been evacuated so far but some 6,000 remain stranded. 60 helicopters are in service, ferrying people and air-dropping food and other supplies. "Approximately 100 people are being evacuated by the choppers per hour," the state government said in a statement.