Returning home from a Sunday trip to Marina Beach to watch an air show turns tragic for five families

Chennai, Oct 7 (PTI) The excitement of witnessing the Indian Air Force up close during the 92nd Indian Air Force Day celebrations at Marina Beach on Sunday turned tragic for five families as they began their journey home.

Little did they know that it would cost them dearly to walk a short distance from the sandy beach to reach their two-wheelers parked on the road.

“My husband asked me to wait with our two-and-a-half-year-old child at the entrance of the beach where we remained stationed for about an hour and a half and watched the air show,” the wife of Karthikeyan, 34, of Thiruvottiyur, here, said.

Seeing the huge crowd on the beach, the family decided not to go near the venue and watched the IAF’s aerobatics from a greater distance.

“At 1.30pm he said he would be back on his bike in ten minutes to pick us up. But he didn’t come back even after two hours and his cell phone kept ringing,” she said.

At 3:30 p.m., someone called and told her that her husband had vomited and was lying next to his bike, she said. With the help of a police officer, she went to Napier Bridge and found her husband lying still there.

He was taken to a government hospital by ambulance but was pronounced dead by doctors, she said, claiming he could have been saved if a police officer had been near Napier Bridge.

“There were ambulances on the street nearby, but strangely neither the medical staff nor passers-by noticed that my husband had fainted,” she said.

John, 56, from Kurukkupet had a similar experience. He apparently fainted while walking to his bike after being exposed to the intense heat during the two-hour performance.

“I tried to resuscitate him…we had a hard time getting an ambulance straight away. But when he was admitted to Omandurar Government Hospital, doctors there said he had already died,” she said.

Police identified the other deceased as Srinivasan from Perungalathur, Dhinesh Kumar from Kurnool and Mani from Marakkanam. PTI JSP ROH