Mortal remains of 2 IAF personnel consigned to flames

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Palwal, June 21

Mortal remains of two IAF personnel, who died in a plane crash in Arunachal Pradesh earlier this month, were consigned to flames at their native places in Haryana on Friday.

Flight Lieutenant Ashish Tanwar (29) and airman Pankaj Sangwan were among the 13 people on board the AN-32 aircraft that had crashed on June 3, about 30 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam.

While Tanwar hailed from Palwal district, airman Sangwan belonged to Sonipat.

Their mortal remains were consigned to flames with full state honours at their native places.

All 13 people on board the AN-32 aircraft were declared dead after a team of rescuers had found the wreckage of the plane in a heavily forested mountainous terrain.

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed on Friday after mortal remains of the flight lieutenant and the airman, draped in the Tricolor, were taken to their native places.

Their family members were inconsolable.

Sombre mood prevailed at Deeghot village of Palwal and Kohla village in Sonipat, where the last rites of Tanwar and Sangwan, respectively, took place.

Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, who is the Faridabad MP, paid respects to Lieutenant Tanwar, along with district officials, in Palwal.

The Indian Air Force on Thursday completed the task of retrieving bodies of all its 13 personnel from the crash site in the Pari mountains of Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh.

While six bodies were retrieved on Wednesday, the remaining seven were recovered Thursday.

The plane had remained untraceable till June 11, when its wreckage was located in the Pari mountains. PTI