Deepak Vasant Sathe: The Air India Pilot Who Saved Many Lives With His Presence Of Mind

Capt Deepak Sathe: Decorated ex-IAF pilot, killed in Kerala plane ...

Survivors of Friday’s plane crash in Kerala’s Kozhikode said the aircraft’s captain, who was killed, helped save their lives as he used his presence of mind and averted a fire after the accident.

At least 19 people were killed, including the two pilots, and more than 100 injured when the Air India Express passenger plane repatriating Indians stranded by the coronavirus pandemic from Dubai overshot the runway in heavy rain.

The Boeing-737 flight from Dubai to Calicut International Airport was carrying 190 passengers and crew, including 10 infants, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

Survivors said the brave pilot and vigilant local residents averted a major tragedy. They said people rushed to the spot and retrieved them before help came in as they entered the plane ignoring the smoke and minor fire.

Wing Commander Deepak Vasant Sathe was an ace Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter with a 22-year career. Sathe, 59, was awarded the coveted “sword of honour” (a recognition of his skills) when he graduated from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad in June 1981.

The former IAF fighter, an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, was also an accomplished test pilot.

“It was raining heavily. The pilot had given a warning before landing saying the weather was really bad. He tried for safe landing twice but lost control. The aircraft shot off the runway and skidded off and it broke into two pieces. It was a miraculous escape for many,” V Ibrahim, one of the passengers who survived with minor injuries, said.

Out of the 190 people on board, 123 people have been injured and 20 are in serious condition, said hospital sources adding some of them received spinal cord injuries in the impact.


Kozhikode plane crash: 89 injured discharged; 22 among 83 in ...

Officials said 38 passengers are in Kozhikode MIMS Hospital, 28 in Baby Memorial Hospital and 14 in Medical College Hospital.

A report on the Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 claimed that the crashed airplane had circled the airport multiple times and made two attempts to land before the fateful crash took place, because of turbulence. Even Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the pilot “must have tried to bring the flight to the end of tabletop airport’s runway where it skidded due to slippery conditions owing to monsoon”.

Captain Sathe, who retired as a Wing Commander with the Indian Air Force in 2003, is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy in Pune and was a decorated officer. He was described as “one of the most distinguished and experienced pilots” with more than 10,000 hours of flying experience and had landed aircraft 27 times before at the Karipur Airport in Kerala.

It was India’s worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010, when another Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the table-top runway at Mangalore and slid down a hill, killing 158 people.


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