When earth shook, team enjoys high seas on board US N-ship

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While the earthquake and tsunami warning rattled the residents of Chennai on Wednesday, a select few Chennaiites had an experience of their lifetime on board the nuclear-powered aircraft carrying US warship USS Carl Vinson at the same time.

“We were 200 miles off the Chennai coast and we didn’t know anything about the quake or the tsunami warning till we landed safely at 3.45 pm at the Chennai airport,” said Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) director P. Sivakumar.

Along with CVRDE director, Indian Coast Guard region (East) inspector general S. P. Sharma, ex-MLA, and advocate Bader Syeed, Visteon country managing director A. Viswanathan, commodore S. Shekhar and actor Kamal Hassan visited the US Navy ship in Bay of Bengal to take part in Operations Malabar, a joint exercise between Indian and US Navy.

After going through basic precautions, the team quipped with safety glasses, soundproof hearing protector and helmet boarded an US Navy aircraft from Chennai airport and landed on board USS Carl Vinson at 9.45 am Wednesday.

“I was a bit scared initially. The landing of the aircraft on board the ship was not like actual landing on a runway and the take-off was also catapult-assisted. However, it was an absolutely fascinating experience. I am privileged to get such an opportunity,” said Ms Sayeed.

Apart from landing of a few two-seater F-aircraft belonging to US Navy, the group also witnessed landing of an Indian Navy aircraft on the Carl Vinson airstrip. The Indian Navy aircraft was carrying Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet rear admiral H. C. S. Bisht.

Noting that about 12 aircraft were present on the ship, Mr Sivakumar said the US Navy performed aerial refuelling, a process of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another aircraft during flight. “We also saw search and rescue demonstrations and how sonar-enabled sensor was deployed from the helicopter to identify target at sea,” he added.