Mortal remains of co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar killed in AI mishap reaches Mathura

Hours after Air India employees paid tributes to Akhilesh Kumar, co-pilot of the flight that crashed while attempting to land at the Karipur airport, were brought to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura on Sunday.

New Delhi/Kozhikode:The mortal remains of Akhilesh Kumar, co-pilot of the Air India Express flight that crashed while attempting to land at the Karipur airport in Kerala, were brought to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura on Sunday.

His mortal remains were brought from Kochi to the Delhi Airport at 2:25 am on Sunday. About 200 Air India members paid tributes to Kumar and observed two minutes of silence and prayed for the peace of departed officer.

Earlier on Saturday, the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot of the Air India Express flight were handed over to their families.

Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan said, "The bodies were handed over to their families who came with AIE officials around 5 pm and as I understand they have moved to Cochin for onward journey to their respective destinations."

The Air India Express crash last night left 18 onboard dead and 172 injured, some seriously. Captain Deepak Vasanth Sathe and First Officer Akhilesh Kumar, were in command of the AIE.

Kozhikode district collector S Sambasiva Rao told a news agency that the bodies were embalmed after conducting post-mortem at the Medical College hospital here and were handed over to the families by evening.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Captain Deepak Sathe was a Wing Commander in Indian Air Force before he joined commercial aircraft flying. A resident of Powai in Mumbai, Captain Sathe is survived by a wife and two sons. His father Colonel Vasanth Sathe and mother Neela stay in Nagpur.

A native of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Kumar is survived by his eight months pregnant wife Megha, whom he married in 2017. He is also survived by two younger brothers, sister and his parents.

(With inputs from agencies)