Chennai, Jul 14: Flights carring the moral remains of 10 residents hailing from Tamil Nadu killed in a boat tragedy in Vietnam reached Chennai and Coimbatore airports respectively on Tuesday morning.
The bodies were flown from Mumbai.
Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at the Chennai airport as grieving relatives received the mortal remains of those who died in the boat tragedy.
Of the 15 victims, 10 hailed from Tamil Nadu, three from Andhra Pradesh and two from Kerala.
Prabhakaran, a relative of one of the victims, expressed profound grief over the sudden demise of his 49-year-old family member.
Speaking to PTI Videos, he stated that the family was struggling to recover from the tragedy but expressed gratitude that the body was brought home and handed over to them without any procedural hardship.
Prabhakaran thanked the Tamil Nadu government, Chief Minister Joseph C Vijay, TVK’s Vellore MLA Vinoth, DIG Santosh Kumar, and an Indian Embassy official in Vietnam for their seamless coordination.
The caskets initially arrived at the Mumbai international airport on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Ho Chi Minh City at 9.30 pm on July 13, before being dispatched to their respective native states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Senior officials, including Tamil Nadu Police DIG Santosh Kumar and Regional Passport Officer Swapnil Thorat, were present at the international cargo area in Chennai to oversee the arrival.
Following the completion of customs clearance at the international import heavy cargo shed, the caskets were shifted to the domestic cargo facility.
The bodies of the victims from Tamil Nadu were flown to Coimbatore and Chennai on multiple early morning flights, while the remains of those from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala were booked on flights to Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively.
According to Vietnamese media reports, 15 Indian tourists were killed in the accident on Saturday.
The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four crew members when it capsized about 400 metres off Hon May Rut Ngoai, an island in the An Thoi archipelago off the coast of Phu Quoc, according to Vietnamese news portal VN Express International. (PTI)
