CUDDALORE:Nineteen days after a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft went missing somewhere near Chidambaram with three aviators on board, eight relatives of two of them on Friday sailed in the backwaters of Pichavaram along the dense mangrove forests, calling out for them, with the hope of finding and rescuing them.
It was heartrending to watch the family members, including the wife of co-pilot M K Soni, crying out the names of the aviators and the echo causing an eerie resonance in the mangroves.
Soni’s kin from Nagpur and the kin of pilot Vidhyasagar from Visakhapatnam sailed in the backwaters for more than an hour-and-a-half, along with officials of the Coast Guard, Coastal Security Group, Forest Department and some media representatives.
The relatives were reluctant to get back to the jetty as they were seemingly overwhelmed by the feeling that the aircraft was somewhere in the mangroves. Not only was their gaze fixed on the vast green expanse, they even evinced keen interest on sailing through each of the nearly 500 narrow canals that crisscross the 3,000 acres of mangrove forest.
Some of the relatives also wanted to trek through the thickets. Forest officials took pains to explain to them about the forest’s slushy surface, the density of the thickets and how it was humanly impossible to walk through the vegetation.
After disembarking from the boats, they drove towards Pazhayar in Nagapattinam district to continue their search.
The officers briefed the relatives about the efforts made by various agencies to search for the aircraft.