Return home from Marina Beach air show turns tragic to five families

PTI Chennai: Sunday's excitement of being witness to India's air capability at close quarters during the 92nd Indian Air Force Day celebration on the Marina Beach turned tragic for five families when they began their journey home. Little did they realise that walking for some distance from the sandy beach to reach their two-wheelers parked on the road would cost them dear. "My husband asked me to wait with our two-and-ahalf year old kid at the entrance to 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 massive crowd on the beach, the family decided not to get anywhere close to the venue and watched the IAF's aerobatic skills from further away. "At 1.30 pm he said he would be back with his bike in ten minutes to pick us up. But he did not return even after two hours and his mobile phone kept ringing constantly," she said. At 3.30 pm someone answered and told her that her husband vomited and lay near his bike, she said. With the help of a policeman she walked to the Napier Bridge only to find her husband lying still. He was taken to a government hospital in an ambulance but was declared brought dead by the doctors, she said and claimed that he could have been saved had there been a policeman near the Napier bridge.

"There were ambulances lined up on the road close by, but strangely none of the medical staff or passers-by noticed my husband swooning," she said. Similar was the case of John, 56, of Kurukkupet. He apparently fainted as he walked up to his bike, after he was exposed to the intense heat during the two hours display. "I tried to revive him ... we found difficulty in getting an ambulance promptly. But by the time he was rushed to the Omandurar government hospital, doctors there said he had already died," his wife said. Police identified the other deceased as Srinivasan of Perungalathur, Dhinesh Kumar of Kurnool, and Mani of Marakkanam.

5 deaths post IAF air show related to heat, condition of 7 stable, says TN Health Minister

Five deaths that occurred after the Indian Air Force's air show on the Marina beach on Sunday were related to heat issues, and they were all brought dead to the government facilities, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Monday and appealed to the political parties and media not to politicise the issue. Of the nearly 100 people admitted to the government hospitals close to Marina beach, 7 were undergoing treatment, and 93 people were treated as out-patients. Five persons were brought dead to the hospitals, Subramanian stated. The condition of those undergoing treatment at the hospitals was stable, he said and added that there was no stampede while the spectators started leaving for home at the same time.

“We don't deny the deaths, which were all related to heat conditions as the people remained under the hot sun from 11 am till one pm. Let me make it clear, we made arrangements anticipating 15 lakh people for the IAF's 92nd Day celebrations and even provided more than what the IAF had sought,” the Minister told reporters here. The timing for the two-hours air show (from 11 am to 1 pm) was decided by the IAF based on weather conditions and the IAF had advised people to bring umbrellas, wear caps and cooling glasses and also bring water bottles with them, he said. “The IAF had requested us to ready 100 beds, an ICU facility with 20 beds besides keeping a blood bank on alert to respond to any emergency. But we arranged 4,000 beds at five government medical college hospitals in the icinity,” Subramanian said