Excavated remains of soldiers, including fragments of bones, and artifacts of a US Air Force B-24 bomber and a C-109 aircraft that had crashed in present-day Arunachal Pradesh during the World War II were on Wednesday sent off to the US.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who was here on a three-day visit, oversaw the repatriation ceremony at the airport here.
One set of remains was recovered in Arunachal Pradesh between September 12 and November 17, 2015. Another set of remains was handed over to Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) by a third party from the same region.
The remains recovered late last year are possibly associated with a B-24 bomber aircraft crash on January 25, 1944, where a crew of eight personnel assigned to the 14th Air Force, 308th Bomb Group were lost during a routine mission from Kunming, China to Chabua, India.
The remains that were handed over to DPAA are possibly related to a C-109 aircraft that crashed on July 17, 1945, while flying from Jorhat to Hsinching, China, with a four-man Army-Air Force crew. Carter had on Tuesday expressed his gratitude to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Indian Government for their support in facilitating the recovery effort.