Members of the Naval Armament Civilian Staff and Workers Union led by it general secretary S. Marayya, submitted a memorandum to MP K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao on Monday, urging him to take up the matter of the family members of eight employees who have gone missing with the AN 32 flight that was lost mid-air on July 22, with the authorities concerned. Till date there has been no trace of the flight and neither the authorities concerned have been able to give a logical conclusion to the missing episode. Mr. Marayya said the family members were in dire straits and demanded that they be granted maximum compensation as a special case and employment be provided to the next of kin to support the families.
“Some of the family members are in very bad condition as NAD has stopped paying the salaries since August and the families are unable to pay the school fee of their children and settle the medical bills,” he said. The MP assured to take up the matter with the authorities.
It may be recalled that the eight-member NAD team comprising B. Sambamurthy, P. Nagendra Rao, R.V. Prasad Babu, Purna Chandra Senapathi, Charan Maharana, N. Chinna Rao, G. Srinivasa Rao and Bhupendra Singh, had boarded the AN 32 flight of the Indian Air Force bearing number K-2743 at the Tambaram airbase on July 22 at about 8.30 a.m. on their way to Port Blair to rectify a defect in the CRN 91 weapon system mounted on INS Battmalv.
The flight was supposed to reach Port Blair at around 11.30 a.m. but the radar contact was lost 42 minutes after take off, around 270 km east of Chennai.
