IAF officer killed in Sukhoi jet crash cremated with full military honours

Kozhikode: The body of a 25-year-old Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, who was killed along with one of his colleagues after their Sukhoi jet crashed in Assam on May 23, was cremated with full military honours at his ancestral home here on Saturday.

The mortal remains of Flight Lieutenant S Achudev was brought here this morning from Thiruvananthapuram in a special IAF aircraft for the final rites.

His parents, sister and close relatives were among those who bid a tearful farewell to the IAF pilot.

Ports Minister Kadanapally Ramachandran visited the grieving parents and consoled them.

Young Air Force officers carried the coffin on their shoulders and paid respects to their colleague.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had paid homage to the late officer and spent some time with the bereaved parents - V P Sahadevan, a retired officer of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here, and mother Jaishree when the body was brought to the state capital yesterday.

Achudev's parents had gone to Tezpur Air Force station as soon as they had heard about the mishap and returned on Thursday.

The bodies of Achudev and Squadron Leader D Pankaj were recovered on May 31 from the crash site in a dense forest area near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

The aircraft had crashed in a thick forest, about 60 km from Tezpur air base, after taking off from there for a routine training mission. Tezpur has one of the three IAF air bases in the country that host the Sukhois.