Residents of the housing complex paid tributes to the pilot
Mumbai:
Wing Commander (Retd.) Deepak Sathe, pilot-in-command of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala last week, was cremated in Mumbai today with state honours.
Several mourners lined up along the road as the funeral procession started from his residence in Mumbai’s Chandivli.
The last rites were performed at a suburban electric crematorium in the presence of some of his relatives.
The number of people allowed to attend the last rites was restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Relatives, friends and others, including Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, paid floral tributes at his residence before the final procession began.
Slogans of “amar rahe” were raised when his body was being taken to the crematorium from the residence.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Government decided to accord a state funeral to the pilot, saying, his life will inspire young pilots.
The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people, including a six-member crew, overshot the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport amid heavy rain on Friday, killing 18 people, including both the pilots.
Wing Commander (Retd.) Deepak Sathe’s body was flown to Mumbai on Sunday and was kept at the Air India facility near Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport for some time before being taken to Bhabha Hospital in Bandra.
Today morning, the body was brought from the hospital to the family home in Chandivli.
Residents of the housing complex paid tributes to the pilot. Some were seen saluting him from their balconies.
The pilot’s father, Colonel Vasant Sathe (Retd.), 87 and mother Neela, 83, reached the Chandivli residence from Nagpur, where they live.
The pilot’s US-based elder son Shantanu also reached Mumbai on Monday for the last rites. He, along with his mother Sushma and younger brother Dhananjay, were in tears as the last rites were performed shortly after noon.
A wreath was placed on behalf of the Indian Air Force, where the retired Wing Commander was a test pilot before joining Air India.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
