51-year Chandrika Sharma from Chennai is one among the 227 passengers on board the missing Beijing-bound Malaysian Airlines flight, which went missing on Saturday Morning. Reports presumed that the flight MH370 must have crashed in South China Sea.
Sharma, who left Chennai on Friday to participate in a conference at Mongolia via Malaysia. She boarded the Malaysian Airlines which went missing on Saturday Morning. She was representing the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), where she was working as Executive Secretary and has been involved with the fisheries NGO for the past 12 years.
While no official information has been received from Malaysian Airlines, her colleague in Chennai confirmed she took the flight and said we pray that she is alive”, while adding that “she is a hardworking and friendly woman.
Chandrika, who is originally from Son Bareilly in Haryana, was living with her mother and is married to a Tamilian, Narendran, and settled in Chennai. She has an 18-year-old daughter who is studying BA at Ambedkar University in New Delhi.
Malaysian Airlines has not confirmed about Sharma, the Airlines release stated that passengers are of 14 different nation alities, including five Indians. All crew on-board are Malaysians.
The Airline said the passenger manifest will not be released until all families of the passengers have been informed. The flight was carrying a total numberof 239 passengers and crew comprising 227 passengers (including 2infants) and 12 crew members.
The Airlines also said it is unable to establish any contact or determine the whereabouts of flight MH370. Earlier today, Subang ATC had lost contact with the aircraft at 2.40am. The last known position of MH370 before it disappeared off the radar was 065515North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).
We are still trying to locate the current location of the flight based on the last known position of the aircraft. We are working with the international search and rescue teams in trying to locate the aircraft. So far, we have not received any emergency signals or distress messages from MH370. We are working with authorities and assure that all sources are deployed to assist with the search and rescue mission, according to Airline’s statement.
2014 Business Standard Ltd.