C-130 aircraft to be used for search of Ali Sadpara, other missing mountaineers
The land operation to locate the mountaineers has been suspended due to harsh weather conditions
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News/AFP) – The concerned authorities have decided to use Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) C-130 aircraft at the height of over 8,000 meters on the world’s second-highest mountain K2 for the search of missing mountaineers Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Jon Snorri and Juan Pablo Mohr.
According to details, the land operation to find the mountaineers has been suspended due to harsh weather conditions.
It is to be mentioned here that climbers John Snorri from Iceland, Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile and Muhammad Ali Sadpara from Pakistan had lost contact with base camp on February 5.
Earlier, Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haidri said, “Helicopters search had found no sign of missing climbers.”
Sajid Sadpara, son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who had last seen his father at K2 s final technical difficulty "bottleneck," said the chances of survival were bleak.
"The chances of surviving for two-three days at 8,000 (metres) in winters are very low," Sadpara told reporters.
On Friday a Bulgarian mountaineer was confirmed to have died on K2. He is the third mountaineer to die on K2 s slopes this year, after a Spanish climber fell to his death last month.
Russian-American Alex Goldfarb also died on a nearby mountain during an acclimatising mission in January.
A team of Nepali climbers made history on K2 last month when they became the first to scale it in winter.
Conditions on K2 are harsh: winds can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).
