Thirty-five years after the crash of an Indian Air Force AN-12 aircraft near Rohtang La, teams from the army, IAF and the Himachal Pradesh government will launch an operation to salvage 19 bodies of servicemen and the wreckage.

The Leh-bound four-engine aircraft was declared lost on February 7, 1968, in bad weather. Last week a team of adventurers stumbled upon the crash site near the 16,000-feet-high Dhaka glacier between Rohtang La and Batal. Most of the bodies were intact under the snow.

"Our ground teams along with teams from army and Himachal directorate of adventure have reached Manali and we propose to launch an air and land salvage operation soon," an IAF spokesperson said in New Delhi.

He said operations were hindered on Thursday due to bad weather, but 'we are hopeful of bringing some of the bodies down tomorrow'.