Seven days after MiG 29 crash, no trace of wreckage yet

A week after the crash of a MiG 29 fighter in Lahaul-Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh, the wreckage of the plane is yet to be located during search operations by the IAF, which carried out 132 sorties and the fate of the pilot is still not known.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has also approached the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) to make available data of the probable search area through its satellites.

"This effort was important as no radio call was received from the crashed aircraft and early sighting of the missing pilot and the aircraft wreckage was important," an IAF spokesperson said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Troops from Indian Army's Ladakh Scouts and IAF mountaineers have also been pressed into the operation to locate the aircraft.

The IAF had deployed all its frontline aircraft such as the Su-30 MKI, Israeli Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Jaguars,

AN-32, Avros and all types of helicopters in its inventory to locate the MiG-29, which crashed on the night of October 18 over a mountainous area.

"Till date, 132 sorties have been flown for search and rescue (SAR) operations of the MiG-29 and its pilot (Sqdrn Ldr D S Tomar) but the high altitude and treacherous mountainous region at elevations extending upto 20,000 ft and lack of communication from the pilot have made the operation very demanding," IAF spokesperson said.

All available data and inputs from the formation leader, data on his aircraft as well as reports from civil police received through villagers in the area were collated to ascertain the probable crash site, they said.

"Within first 24 hours 22 sorties of SU-30, Jaguar, Cheetah, Chetak and An-32 aircraft were mounted that flew over 41 hours with there hitech search equipments," they said.

The entire search and rescue operation is being supervised by the Task Force Commander Group Captain P K Sharma.

IAF is also taking the help of local mountaineers who are familiar with the terrain and are best suited for undertaking search operations in the snowbound, high altitude regions for extended periods.

"The sarpanch of Thirot village along with some of the villagers brought a few wreckage components which were identified to be that of MiG-29 aircraft. However, the entire area came under fresh snow following a spell of bad weather," they said.

The aviation accident experts, who have flown over the area, are of the opinion that the ground party is likely to be most effective since the aircraft may have disintegrated after the impact and the debris is spread across the slopes on either side of the ridge line, they said.

"Nothing can be said with certainty at this stage until the crash site is conclusively identified and flight data recorder (black box) is recovered and analysed," they said.

Meanwhile, IAF officials are in constant touch with the family of the missing pilot providing them inputs on the progress of the search and rescue effort.