The Maharashtra government will accord a state funeral to Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, pilot of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala last week, killing 18 people, including both the pilots.
“We’ll accord state funeral to late Wing Commander(Retd) Capt DV Sathe. His life has been one that will inspire young pilots to achieve Sword of Honour & command over skies,” chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s office said in a tweet on Tuesday morning.
The funeral of Captain Sathe, a resident of Chandivali in Mumbai, will be held later in the day, according to news agency PTI.
Sathe’s remains were flown to Mumbai from Cochin International Airport in Kerala on Sunday afternoon. The body was then kept at the Air India facility near Terminal 2 of Mumbai airport for sometime before being taken to Bhabha Hospital.
Sathe, the commander of the ill-fated AI flight, was a former fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force with 10,000 hours of flying experience on the Boeing 737 aircraft. He had flown 6,662 of these hours as the commander.
The co-pilot and first officer of the aircraft Captain Akhilesh Kumar was cremated on Sunday in his home town Mathura in the presence of his family and officials of Air India and Air India Express.
