Mahendra Nath Phukon was among 102 army and air force personnel who died when their AN-12 aircraft went down on a flight to the Kashmir outpost of Leh on February 7, 1968.
GUWAHATI: An Indian soldier who died in a Himalayan plane crash 39 years ago was cremated on Tuesday after his glacier-entombed corpse was recovered by a military expedition team.
Mahendra Nath Phukon was among 102 army and air force personnel who died when their AN-12 aircraft went down on a flight to the Kashmir outpost of Leh on February 7, 1968.
There were no survivors of the crash in the wilds near the 6,264-metre high Chandrabhaga mountain.
The wreckage was first sighted only in July 2003, buried deep inside a glacier. Since then the army has launched recovery expeditions every summer.
On August 2, the army recovered three bodies from the glacier, one of them was Phukon -- still in uniform and carrying his identity card. He was a 20-year-old craftsman with the electrical mechanical engineers corps.
It has been a long wait for Phukon's family in Deodhai village, Sivasagar district, about 360 kilometres east of Guwahati. His body was carried in a coffin draped with the Indian flag to his village with full military honours on Monday.
Thousands of people turned out for the funeral on Tuesday to pay their last respects.
"It was like a dream -- we feel happy that we were able to perform the last rites even after 40 long years and sad as it was, a tearful reunion for the family," Mahendra's elder brother Tuben said.
Tuben and his brother Durganath have both retired from the army and their parents long since died.
"I think it's more the mystery that everyone is intrigued by -- the fact that here's this plane that crashed more than 39 years ago, and there's still somebody up there in fine fettle," Durganath said.
The last time Mahendra came home was to attend Tuben's marriage in 1967.
"Unfortunately we didn't even have his photographs to show our children -- at least now they got a chance to see him," Tuben said.
This was the second time the family had performed Mahendra's funeral.
"After coming to know about the crash we waited for some days and later performed a symbolic funeral little knowing the corpse would arrive 40 years later," said Jiten, the oldest of the four brothers, said.
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