Thiruvananthapuram: A massive search is on for the Malayali fighter pilot, S. Achu Dev, who has gone missing while flying an Indian Air Force Su-30 fighter plane after it lost radio contact 60 km north of Tezpur in Assam on Wednesday. He belongs to Pongumoodu here. Achu Dev was one of the two pilots of the Sukhoi-30 MKI. The name of the second pilot is yet to be revealed by the authorities. The two reportedly ejected out of the crashed plane. Search operations are on in the areas where the plane lost contact with the Tezpur Salonibari Air Force station from where it took off. Rescue operations are difficult due to heavy rain in the area.
Achu Dev is the son of Sahadevan and Jayashree of Alaka, Gouri Nagar, Pongumoodu who have already gone to Tezpur. A source close to Achu Dev’s family told DC that Indian Army’s nine troops having 500 personnel and another seven troops of IAF were searching in three states - Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. It was while Achu Dev was doing his eighth grade at Loyola School, Thiruvananthapurm, that he got admission to the prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College, a public school for boys, in Doon Valley, Dehradun. After completing his 10th and 12th grades from there, Achu Dev got into the National Defence Academy in Pune where he became a commissioned officer.
“The search is also taking place at Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh which is a dense forest of 783 sq km. Local informers in the forest have reportedly told the local district administration that they had seen the Sukhoi crash there. But heavy rain and gusty winds are playing spoilsport for the aerial search”, a family source told DC. The Army and IAF officials are on foot search in an area of 109 km. The fighter plane has the facility to eject the pilot’s parachute which has given hope to the authorities and the families of the two pilots that they must have ejected when it crashed.
At the same time, only another fighter plane, Super Hercules having the ability to have electro pixel waves, which can pick up the communication waves of Sukhoi, is ready for the search. But due to the cyclone, it is facing difficulty to fly. The Army and IAF officials have also informed the family of Achu Dev that with the speed of the wind, the possibility of the two fighter pilots landing in the neighbouring Meghalaya also cannot be ruled out. They also hint at the possibility of the two pilots landing in eastern Bhutan which is 60 km from the Chinese border. So the officials have also sought the help of the police in Bhutan and requested them to alert them if the two are found.
