Body of Army pilot found over 2 months after helicopter's crash into Ranjit Sagar

Pathankot: The body of the second pilot of an Army helicopter that crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam lake near Pathankot more than two weeks ago has been recovered, police said on Sunday.

“The body of the second pilot of the helicopter which crashed in Ranjit Sagar Dam has been recovered after 76 days,” the Jammu and Kashmir Police said.

The mortal remains of Captain Jayant Joshi were recovered from the lake bed, said PRO (Defence).

"Persistent efforts by Army and Navy for 75 days which were going on day and night to recover the body of Capt Jayant Joshi, the second pilot of the helicopter which crashed in Ranjit Sagar Dam on August 3 has finally succeeded and the body has been recovered from the lake bed," said PRO (Defence).

It further said that multi-beam sonar equipment was used by the search and rescue team to scan the lake bed, owing to the depth of the dam.

"Due to the vast expanse and depth of the dam, search and rescue team was using state of the art multi-beam sonar equipment to scan lake bed&based on inputs received, remotely operated vehicle having robotic arm along with professional divers were launched to search the area," it said.

The mortal remains of the other pilot were found in August days after the incident. "Mortal remains of Lt Col AS Baath retrieved from a depth of 75.9 metres at 6:19 pm from the Ranjit Sagar lake. Efforts to retrieve mortal remains of the second pilot continue," a source said.

The Rudra helicopter of the Army Aviation wing had crashed into the lake on August 3 when it was carrying out a training sortie. The chopper belonged to the Army's Pathankot-based Aviation Squadron.