Capt Sathe was to meet mom today
Pune/Kozhikode, Aug. 8: Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight, who died along with 17 others after the mishap at Kozhikode airport, had planned to pay a surprise visit to Nagpur to greet his mother on her 84th birthday on Saturday, his relative said.
“He had last met his parents in March and was constantly in touch with them over phone. They had last spoken a day before yesterday,” his nephew Dr Yashodhan Sathe said on Saturday.
Captain Sathe lived with his wife in Mumbai. His mother Neela Sathe lives with her husband Vasant Sathe, a retired Colonel, in Bharatnagar locality of the city.
Sathe was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the flight testing establishment. A passout of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune, topper in the 58th course and an awardee of ‘Sword of Honour’, Deepak served in the IAF for 21 years before joining as a commercial pilot with Air India in 2005.
Dr Yashodhan said that the body of Captain Sathe is yet to be handed over to the family.
He has two sons. “Dhananjay lives in Bengaluru and he is trying to reach Kozhikode by road. His second son is in the USA and he won’t be able to come,” Dr Yashodhan said. Sources said Air India was trying to fly him home.
Capt. Sathe had survived an air crash in the early 1990s when he was in the Air Force and was hospitalised for six months, his cousin Nilesh Sathe, who is adviser, finance, at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said in a Facebook post,
Sathe had suffered multiple injuries on his skull. Due to his strong will power and passion he cleared the fitness test and started flying again, Nilesh said.