THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hundreds of people thronged House Number 34, Alaka at Gouri Nagar, Pongumoodu in Thiruvananthapuram to pay their last respects to flight lieutenant S. Achu Dev who was killed in the Sukhoi- 30 air crash at Tezpur in Assam on May 23. His parents V.P. Sahadevan and mother Jayashree were grieving in front of Achu Dev’s coffin where his Air Force pilot cap and the three medals he had won during his stint was displayed. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and several other leaders cutting across political affiliations and common people paid their last respects to Achu Dev.
Earlier on Friday, Achu Dev’s mortal remains were brought from Sulur Air Force station at Coimbatore at 9 am. Thiruvananthapuram district administration and tourism minister Kadak-ampally Surendran rece-ived the fighter pilot’s body at the Sanghumu-gham Air Force base and brought it to the home at Pongumoodu. Public was allowed to pay their respects until 5 pm after which the Air Force officials shifted the coffin to the Pangode Military Hospital. Achu Dev’s mother could be seen inconsolable as she was gazing at the coffin with his father also turning emotional. Achu Dev’s brother-in-law, Nirmal Chandra, a software engineer in Bengaluru was also grieving in front of the coffin. Achu Dev’s only sister, Anushree, had reached Kozhikode directly from Bengaluru. She is pregnant. A top Air Force official told this newspaper that the burial will take place at Panthee-rankavu in Kozhikode on Saturday at 3 pm with full military honours.
“The parents will accompany the coffin in a special Air Force flight where we will leave at 10 am from the Shanghumugham Air Force base. We will reach Kozhikode by 11 am. The 21 member band team of the Air Force station from Sulur will offer their tribute to the true son of the soil with 21 gun salute”, said a top Air Force official. The efforts made by the Air Force team were commendable and the extra efforts put forward by the Southern Air Command were well appreciated by the family members and friends of Achu De. The Sukhoi-30’s black box was found last Sunday when the ground search teams reached the accident site on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. It had lost radar and radio contact with the controlling station around 11.10 am on May 23. The fighter plane had crashed near Arunachal Pradesh’s Doulasang area, adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur.
