PTI

Itanagar, Mar 18: Arunachal Pradesh is gradually becoming the missing link of hundreds of war heroes who disappeared while flying fighter planes during the Second World War in the eastern front.

State's Governor, Gen (Retd) J J Singh, a former chief of army staff, took notes on Monday evening from Oken Tayeng, who had spotted wreckages of aircraft of the Allied Forces in eight locations in Lohit, Dibang valley, Upper Siang and Papum Pare districts.

It all started when Tayeng, a local tour operator, joined an American investigator Clayton Kuhles three years ago in his mission to know about the fate of the missing crew of hundreds of planes that flew from India to China, but never reached their destination.

Before meeting the Governor, Tayeng told reporters that he had spotted the debris of US fighter plane 'Hot as Hell' at Damora in East Siang district last year. It was one of the 'Missing in Action' (MIA) planes.

He also collected from a local a bracelet in which flight engineer Arnold Starinoha's name was engraved. This find had finally led him to a hilltop near Itanagar where he spotted the wreckages of another plane missing since 1944.

According to investigators, hundreds of planes and pilots went missing in China-Burma-India (CBI) war theatre in their mission to maintain supply line from Ledo in Assam to Kunming in China avoiding the fighter planes of Japan.

The Governor's interest in Tayeng apparently followed US Consul General Henry V Jardine's statement during his recent visit to the state that the US government might approach India to help locate the wreckages and remains of the pilots in Arunachal Pradesh.