Chennai: Early on Tuesday morning, a visibly shaken Nirmal Kumar, one of the survivors of the Vietnam boat accident, walked out of Terminal A 5 at Chennai International Airport clad in white -tshirt and grey pants. His colleagues and friends who were waiting anxiously ran forward and hugged him and some broke down seeing him.Nirmal Kumar was among the group of dealers of a mobile phone company, who went to Vietnam on a sponsored trip. When TOI contacted him, he was at the funeral of his friend, who also died in the tragedy, in Dindigul. Earlier at the airport, he recalled that only those who were seated on the front side of the boat could survive as they were able to jump out of the boat. Speaking to the media after landing in Chennai, Nirmal Kumar, said it all happened in the blink of an eye.“A storm hit the boat from one side and the captain immediately jumped from the boat. Something occurred to me, and I also jumped into the water. Seeing me, a few more followed suit. Only they survived. Since it was a closed boat, those seated in the rear could not come out of the boat and it was all over even as the rescue team reached the spot in 10 minutes,” he said.Nirmal Kumar said he could not sleep since the incident as he lost a childhood friend in the tragedy. “I should go meet the family members of the deceased,” he said. Nirmal Kumar said that both the Indian and Vietnam govt supported the victims and said that availability of medicines in the island would have saved another six lives.He said that there was a lack of immediate medical supplies on-site. “If certain medicines had been readily available at the spot, four to five more lives could have been saved. We have explained this to the Vietnam government,” Kumar stated.
