Foreign Trekkers Missing In Uttarakhand: IAF Continues Search Operation For Third Day

The mountaineers, expected to return on October 18, contacted their embassies on October 3 after losing their luggage and trekking equipment.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Still, there is no information on the women mountaineers from US and UK stuck on the Chaukhambha 3 trek in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district. For the past two days, the Air Force helicopter has been engaged in a search operation for the duo, but could not be traced. On October 5, the chopper went for the search operation, but the search-and-rescue team did not find any location of them.

As per information, British citizen Faizane (27) and US citizen Michelle Theresa (23) left on September 11 to climb the Chaukhambha 3 mountain, located at an altitude of about 6,854 meters. It is being told that both of them were to return by October 18. But on October 3 the luggage and other equipment of the foreign climbers fell into the ravine from an altitude of about 6,100 meters on the Chaukhambha trek itself. After this, both the climbers contacted their embassies through a pager which was shared with the Uttarakhand government which sought help from the Chamoli district administration and the Air Force. On October 4 the Air Force's Chetak helicopter went in a search operation but found no trace of the duo trekkers.

Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said, "On October 5, the Air Force helicopter has also taken off at 11 am. The search operation is going on in the entire area. It is expected that the Air Force search team will locate them by the evening and bring them to Chamoli.

Tiwari said there the search operation is getting hampered by heavy snowfall on the entire trek. However, according to the information received from the embassy, ​​​​both were safe till late Friday evening.