IAF climber missing on Mt Everest

Squadron Leader S.S. Chaithanya, a member of the Indian Air Force (IAF) team that successfully scaled Mount Everest on May is missing follow...

Squadron Leader S.S. Chaithanya, a member of the Indian Air Force (IAF) team that successfully scaled Mount Everest on May is missing following a severe blizzard.

Chaithanya and a Sherpa —— the last in the team to scale the peak —— had started their descent to the advance base camp, almost two hours behind the lead group, when the blizzard struck at about 1700 hours, an IAF spokesman said here.

The first group, comprising Wing Commander R.C. Tripathi, Sergeant N.R. Chowdhary and few some Sherpas, reached the 27,224 feet high Camp-III at 1900 hours. But the Sherpa accompanying Chaithanya reached the camp and said that he had lost contact with the squadron leader during the blizzard.

A night search could not be carried out because of adverse weather conditions, but was launched in the morning.

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