Pilot Achu Dev's parents hope for best

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The parents of Achu Dev, 25, the pilot of the IAF’s fighter jet Sukhoi-30, which crashed on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border on May 23, have not yet lost hope though the Army has decided to end the search operations after the black box was found on Sunday. The Malayali pilot Achu Dev and squadron leader Divesh Pankaj were in the aircraft when it crashed near Arunachal Pradesh’s Doulasang area, adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur, Assam. It will take some time to analyse the black box data.

The wreckage of the jet was found on Friday through aerial reconnaissance in a thick forest around 60 km from Tezpur. Achu Dev’s parents Sahadevan, a retired engineer at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and Jayashree, a retired official belonging to Audio Visual Reprographic Centre, who were living at Gouri Nagar at Pongumoodu here, were taken to Tezpur last Wednesday. The wife of Divesh Pankaj, their four-year-old son and mother are also praying for a miracle for the pilots’ safety. Achu Dev’s parents have requested the Air Force officials to continue the search operations though the officials reportedly told them that the purse and the pan card of Achu Dev and a blood-stained shoe of Divesh Pankaj were found.

However, Achu Dev's brother-in-law, Nirmal Chandra, who is also in Assam, told DC that the commanding officer, who usually briefs on the status of the search operations, was tight-lipped since Monday evening. The parents are spending their time mostly in front of the Hanuman temple inside the Salonibari Air Force station at Tezpur, Nirmal said. They will stay there till they are informed of a clear outcome of the crash,” a family friend of Achu told DC. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called up Achu Dev's parents and promised to ask the centre to intensify the search for the pilots. He had earlier spoken to Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and requested him to continue the search operations.