Airline crash: Chennai woman on ill-fated plane, family shattered

A 51-year-old woman member of an NGO from the city was among five Indians on board the Malaysian airliner that is presumed to have crashed into sea off Vietnamese coast and her family is shattered by the news.

Chandrika Sharma had taken the flight from Kula Lumpur on her way to Mongolia to participate in a Food and Agriculture Organisation organised conference which begins on Saturday.

Sharma was to represent her organisation "International Collective In Support of Fishworkers",  where she works as an Executive Secretary.

"She originally hails from Haryana. She is a resident of Chennai since 1993 having married to a Tamil, Narendiran," her colleague Venugopal said.

The couple has a daughter who is pursuing a degree course in English literature in Dr Ambedkar University in Delhi.

"Her family is devastated by this. They do not want to talk to anyone now," he said, adding they were yet to get information from official agencies.

ICSF, which has offices in Chennai and Brussels, is an international NGO that works towards establishment of equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisan sector, according to its website.

Image: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flight.

Photographs: Mattchew02/Wikimedia Commons.