Missing Indian Plane: Families Still Hopeful And Praying

The prayers they chant on and off help some in the families retain hope. Others are too shocked to even think of god.

An eerie sense of optimism continues to prevail over three homes that have been informed of a member from the family missing since Friday after an Indian Air Force plane carrying 29 personnel disappeared over the Bay of Bengal.

While the navy has launched search operations for the AN32 transporter that went off the radar after taking off from Chennai to Port Blair, three families in the country are nourishing the belief that their dear ones would return.

In Haryana upcountry, Deepika Sheoran’s parents await update on the young flight lieutenant who was aboard the IAF carrier that lost contact with the ground 280km off the Tamil Nadu coast. Uttar Pradesh has two families—in Allahabad and Ghazipur further east—that stares at the prospect of bereavement following the disappearance of flight half an hour after takeoff.

Down south, at Visakhapatnam, a young woman holds on to the belief that “nothing will happen” to her husband—a fitter with the Naval Armament Depot (NAD).

In the same Andhra Pradesh town, a pall of gloom hangs on the residences of three other Telugu workers who, too, were onboard the IAF flight. Ravada Vara Prasad Babu (32) hails from Tadiveedhi near Jagadamba and fellow technician Gantla Srinivas Rao (35) belongs to Vepagunta BC Colony, while draftsman B Samba Murthy’s family is Appannapalem area.

No different is the scene at the residence of Nammi Chinna Rao (55) at Buchireddypalem.

Two other missing NAD personnel—Charan Maharana and Purna Chandra Senapathi—are from Odisha. Besides, there is Bhupendra Singh, a quality examiner who is originally from northern India.

Even as defence minister Manohar Parrikar reviewed on Saturday the search operations that have remained unfruitful, tensed families of the missing passengers are keeping fingers crossed.

-HT