US team to visit 2nd crash site in Tripura

AGARTALA: Disregarding the fury of Mother Nature, a three-member US team, along with officials of ministry of external affairs (MEA) and ministry of home affairs (MHA), left for Birmonipara on Thursday to inspect the crash site of an American plane (C-47-B) that had gone down in a dense jungle of Tripura during the World War-II.
During World War-II, the plane had taken off from Rangoon airport in Burma (now Myanmar) and was bound for Calcutta, but had crashed near Birmonipara.MEA official Amit Kumar Mishra, who is accompanying the team, said after visiting the first site they would visit Dhumacherra at the foothills of Longtarai where another US plane is believed to have crashed during WW-II. The team will not go to third site at Jampui Hills along the Tripura-Mizoram border where a third plane crash was reported during WW-II.
Before leaving for the first site, Mishra said the US experts inspected the 67-year-old wreckage of the aircraft.
"According to the war records, during WW-II about 100 US fighter planes crashed in different parts of the northeast and 900 soldiers, mostly American, lost their lives," said one of the US officials. The team is planning to visit the Dhumacherra area on Friday and interact with the villagers to locate the exact location of the crash, said state home department officials.