Siliguri, June 4: The debris of the MiG-27 missing since May 19 has been found deep inside Gulma Reserve Forest under the Sukna forest range, around 30 km from here.

Though the pilot, flight officer Ajit Sinha, is still missing, the safety-harness of a parachute and a shoe have been discovered a short distance away.

The area has been cordoned off and the army and the forest officials are helping in the search operations.

The MiG, which took off from the Hashimara air base in Jalpaiguri around 11.45 am on a routine sortie on May 19, lost contact with air traffic control and went off the radar minutes before it was scheduled to land at Bagdogra.

Immediately after the jet disappeared, the air force launched search operations but they all proved unsuccessful. The government alerted neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal about the missing MiG, and, when all else failed, air force choppers even dropped pamphlets, appealing to villagers to inform them if they had any information.

The lucky break for the air force came last evening when the headman of Punding forest village, Man Bahadur Gurung, approached Sukna forest authorities with the information.

“Sukna forest officials told us that residents of Punding forest hamlet might have located the crash site. We immediately mounted a search with the help of forest officials and villagers and found the wreckage this morning,” said a senior officer of Bagdogra air force base.

The air force officers are combing the forest, hunting for the black box, which another officer said would be the key to knowing what went wrong. Gurung, who was informed about the aircraft by Ramen Hembrom, said he would verify the truth before approaching the forest authorities.