Families of six out of the eight employees of Naval Armament Depot here, who were on board IAF’s AN-32 aircraft that reportedly crashed into the Bay of Bengal 280 km east of Chennai after it took off from Tambaram on its way to Port Blair on July 22, have given no objection certificates (NOCs) during the last few days to accept the benefits due to the dependants.
This was announced by Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice-Admiral HCS Bisht at a press conference held on board INS Shakti at the Naval Dockyard on Friday on the eve of Navy Day on Sunday.
After a long wait, kin of the six employees gave the NOCs after an IAF board of enquiry gave its preliminary report that there was no likelihood of survivors.
The eight were among the 29 on board of the ill-fated aircraft.
Rest of them were service personnel and different rules apply to them. In the case of Defence civilian employees, CCS rules apply.
The search operations were suspended in September-end..
Vice-Admiral Bisht said the State government had agreed to provide compensation to the civilian employees’ families when a suggestion was made to it by the Navy.
IAC to be stationed
in Visakhapatnam
On stationing of India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1) being built at the Kochi shipyard, Vice-Admiral Bisht said the ship was expected to be delivered by 2018 as many issues have to be taken care of with a new ship and in this case it was a huge one. The ship would be stationed in Visakhapatnam and a space would be provided to the south of the present harbour.
“A detailed project report has to be prepared and submitted and after it is accepted the work on jetty for the aircraft carrier would start. For some time, the ship would be on the west coast and we would be preparing the jetty meanwhile. It is expected to be stationed here in three to four years,” he said.
