Family of Indian woman on Malaysian plane shattered

Chennai, March 24: The hopes of the family and friends of Chandrika Sharma, a 51-year-old woman on the ill-fated Malaysian plane, were shattered Monday when the country's prime minister said there was no hope of survivors and her husband received a message from the airlines.

"I got an SMS. That's it. Let us leave at that," K.S. Narendran, a human resource consultant, told IANS.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak Monday announced in Kuala Lumpur that British investigators from its Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) have confirmed that the Malaysia Airlines "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

He said there was no hope of survivors.

Malaysian PM announced on Monday that the MH370 had crashed into Indian Ocean

Chandrika Sharma, who headed the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) in Chennai, boarded the flight to Beijing with 238 other people March 8 on way to Mongolia to participate in a conference.

Chandrika Sharma was one of the five Indian passengers on that flight. The others were Vinod Koelkar, Chetana Koelkar, Swanand Koelkar and Kranti Shirsath.

IANS