Elanthoor bids farewell to a long-lost soldier 56 years after the tragic plane crash at Rohtang Pass

PATHANAMTHITTA: Elanthoor village is preparing to bid farewell to its beloved soldier who lost his life 56 years ago in the misty mountains of Rohtang pass in Himachal Pradesh. The mortal remains of Thomas Cheriyan (78), son of late OM Thomas and Aliyamma, of Odalil, Elanthoor East, will be brought to Thiruvananthapuram in a special Army flight on Thursday evening. The body will be brought to the Odalil family by 11 a.m. and the funeral will be held at St. Peter’s Church, Karoor at 2 p.m.

“My Uppappan (grandpa’s brother) will be buried in the family grave of the church where my father and grandparents were buried,” said Shyju K Mathew, son of Thomas Mathew, brother of Thomas Cheriyan. “My father and grandparents had been waiting for Uppappan’s return for decades, but they left earthly life with this expectation.

The Army repeatedly informed our family about the search operation for the soldiers in Rohtang Pass and regularly updated the family about the progress. So the entire family expected positive news.

But finally, on Monday, they informed us that the mortal remains had been recovered, dashing all our hopes of his return,” said Shyju, an assistant engineer with the PWD.

After passing matriculation, Cheriyan joined the army at the age of 18. “My father Mathew was also a soldier and that inspired him to join the army. He was appointed as a craftsman in the Army’s Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Department.

After four years of training, he was posted in the Leh-Ladakh sector. On the fateful day, he was on his way from Chandigarh to Lay on the Indian Air Force flight AN-12. The plane crashed at Rohtang Pass. “102 soldiers on board went missing on February 7, 1968,” Shyju said.

The Army continued to search for the remains of the flight since the accident, but in 2003 some parts of the flight were found in the icebergs. Additional parts of the flight were later recovered in 2005, 2006, 2013 and 2019. In 2019, the body parts of five soldiers were identified. During the search in 2024, the body parts of Thomas Cheriyan and three others were removed by the search team.

Thomas Cheriyan is the second son of OM Thomas-Aliyamma. His elder brother Thomas Mathew served in the army for around 15 years and ended his service due to family pressure after Thomas Cheriyan’s disappearance. He returned home, got a job in the forest department and died in 1991. A year ago, in 1990, OM Thomas and his wife Aliyamma died in 1998 without seeing their missing son Thomas Cheriyan.

Thomas Thomas, another brother of Thomas Cheriyan said, I remember meeting my brother when I got a job at BHEL in Haridwar. “When I was moving to Haridwar from Chengannur station by train, Thomas Cheriyan was on vacation and reached the station to see me off. That was my last memory,” said 76-year-old Thomas Thomas. The other siblings Thomas Varghese and Mary Thomas live near their ancestral home in Elanthoor.