New Delhi, June 1
A day after there were celebrations in the Indian Air Force (IAF) over the success of its first-ever team in scaling the Mount Everest, there is grief in the force as a member of the three-member summit team Squadron Leader S.S. Chaithanya has been reported missing in the region after being caught in a severe blizzard.
The IAF today said that Sqn Ldr Chaithanya and the accompanying Sherpa, who were the last in the team to scale the peak on May 30, had started their descent to the Advance Base Camp almost two hours behind the first group of summiteers around 5 pm.
However, the Sherpa finally did reach the base camp around 8 pm and informed the other members that they were caught in a severe blizzard and Sqn Ldr Chaithanya had gone missing in it, an IAF spokesman said here.
The first group, comprising Wing Commander R.C. Tripathi, Sergeant N.R. Chowdhary and a few sherpas reached the 27,224 feet high Camp-III at 7 pm after scaling the summit.
The Sherpa informed the others that he had lost contact with the Squadron Leader during the blizzard.
Night search could not be carried out for Chaithanya because of the adverse weather conditions but was launched in the morning.
