BERHAMPUR: DEBRIS of the Indian Air Force AN-32 transport aircraft which was traced more than seven years after it went missing in the Bay of Bengal has given hope of a closure to the family members of Charan Moharana.
Twenty-seven-year old back then, Charan was one among the 29 people on board the ill-fated aircraft which was flying from Chennai to Port Blair before disappearing over the sea. He worked as a fitter in the Naval Armament Depot in Visakhapatnam.
With the debris of the transport aircraft found after seven years, the Moharana family hopes against hope that Charan’s body may also be traced. The National Institute of Ocean Technology located the debris of the aircraft at a depth of 3,400 metres in the sea, off Chennai's coast.
Charan’s family lives in Sukunda on the outskirts of Berhampur and waiting to conduct the last rites even now.
“A couple of days after the aircraft went missing in 2016, two officers of the Naval Armament Depot officially informed us about its disappearance. But we did not perform our son’s last rites as the body was not found,” said Sudam Moharana, Charan’s 75-year-old father.
Subsequently, the government declared his death and released compensation but the family could not accept his death since his body was not found, said Charana’s 65-year-old mother.
“Now as the debris has been found, we hope his body may also be traced,” Charan’s sister Sasmita and cousin Ashok said.
Since the news of the aircraft debris reached the Moharanas, the family members said they had forgotten to do anything, rather than waiting to hear something on Charan.