Hopes revive for kin of plane crash victims from Vizag with location of possible remains

Hope renews as possible wreckage of missing Indian Air Force plane carrying Naval Armament Depot employees is located.

The hope of finding the remains of the eight employees of the Naval Armament Depot, Visakhapatnam, on board an Indian Air Force AN 32 transport plane that had gone missing over the Bay of Bengal on July 22, 2016, renewed as the news of locating the possible wreckage of the aircraft, streamed through the media on Friday.

The mid-sized transport plane had gone missing after it took off from Chennai. It had 29 personnel on board, including six crew members.

Among the 23 personnel, eight were from NAD in Visakhapatnam. They were on their way to Port Blair to conduct repair works on the close range naval (CRN-91) weapon system on board Indian Navy’s fast attack craft INS Ballimalv.

As the news of locating the debris possibly of the aircraft by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) on the sea bed approximately 140 nautical miles from Chennai coast, streamed in, the family members of the eight NAD employees were seen contacting each other and media houses for more details.

The eight were B. Samba Murthy, P. Nagendra Rao, R.V. Prasad Babu, Purna Chandra Senapati, Charan Maharana, N. Chinna Rao, G. Srinivasa Rao and Bupender Singh.

Chinna Rao, the brother-in-law of G. Srinivasa Rao, called up The Hindu to ascertain more facts.

He told The Hindu, “Though my sister was given a job and her compensation was settled, as the news of locating the debris aired in, we had become emotional. We know that the people in it may not be alive, but at least now we can hope to get back something, like the remains or luggage. Though the chances are very slim, as it has been over seven years, but people still live in hope.”