Air India Express lost two of its pilots, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and First Officer Akhilesh Kumar, in Friday’s crash in Kozhikode. Their families were escorted from Mumbai and New Delhi to Kozhikode early on Saturday.
Click here for latest updteses on the plane crash at Calicut airport
Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, 59, and the commander of the flight, was a highly decorated pilot. He received the Sword of Honour at Air Force Academy given to the top-ranking cadet, and was an accomplished fighter pilot. He was also a test pilot for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. He joined Air India Express in 2013.
His co-pilot in the cockpit, First Officer Akhilesh Kumar, was 32.
There were a total of four cabin crew members — Shilpa Katare, Akshay Pal Singh, Lalit Kumar and Abhik Biswas. All the crew members are safe and met with minor injuries, barring Akshay Pal Singh, who will undergo a surgery for leg fracture.
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