With the view of honoring the services of Captain Deepak Sathe, who died at the fatal plane crash last Friday at Kerala's Kozhikode International Airport, the Maharashtra state government has decided to accord a state funeral for the deceased captain on Tuesday. 

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's office said that the government has decided to accord a state funeral to the late Wing Commander Captain DV Sathe. The Chief Minister's office commended his services and said that his life shall inspire many young pilots to achieve the Sword of Honor and command over the skies. 

According to the reports, the state funeral of the 58-year-old captain will be held in Mumbai on Tuesday. Deepak Sathe was the resident of Chandivali in Mumbai and he was surviving with his wife and two sons.  

In what has been described as the deadly flight crash in the country in a decade, the Air India Express flight had crashed at the Kozhikode airport last Friday and the fatal mishap had killed 18 people including two pilots - Deepak Sathe and Akhilesh Kumar, and it had put over 120 others in the hospitals. The flight, which was the part of Vande Bharat Mission, was carrying 190 people including crew members from Dubai to Kozhikode.  

The flight landed on the tabletop runway amid heavy rains and poor visibility, and went in high speed on the wet runway, skidded off the runway, fell into a gorge, broken into two, and collided on the wall. The CISF, NDRF, and Fire department personnel, and the local residents had carried out the rescue operations and they retrieved the bodies of deceased people. Captain Deepak Sathe was one of the victims. 

Following his demise, Sathe's wife and one of their sons had gone to Kerala and collected his mortal remains. The remains were then brought to Mumbai on Sunday and the remains were kept at the Air India facility near Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and it was then taken to Bhabha hospital and the state government has decided to accord a state funeral on Tuesday. According to ANI, his mortal remains were brought to his residence in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Maharashtra: Mortal remains of late Captain DV Sathe brought to his residence in Mumbai.

Captain Sathe was flying the #AirIndiaExpress flight which crash-landed at #Kozhikode airport on August 7. pic.twitter.com/iqMaKhseRZ

— ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2020

Deepak Sathe was the former Indian Air Force pilot. Sathe was an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and he had a rich experience in operating the Boeing 737 planes. Before piloting Boeing, captain Sathe flew Airbus 310 model planes for Air India. Captain Sathe was from the 58th course of the National Defence Academy (NDA). He passed out from the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad with a Sword of Honor in June 1981.

Sathe was an able fighter pilot before venturing into the commercial aircraft. He had served in the Indian Air Force for 22 years and he retired from 2003 as a squadron leader. One of his relatives said that Sathe has survived in an air crash in the early 1990s when he was serving in the Indian Air Force. He was admitted at the hospital for six months as he had suffered multiple injuries on his skull and he recovered, cleared the test, and started flying again due to his will power.

Captain Sathe had planned to surprise his mother on her 84th birthday on Saturday. However, he had died on Friday at 58. Deepak Sathe's father Vasant Sathe was a Brigadier in the Indian Army and the deceased captain's brother was the Lieutatent at the Army, who died years ago. The reports say that the body of co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar was cremated on Sunday at his hometown Mathura, Uttar Pradesh in the presence of his family members and officials of Air India and Air India Express. 

Akhilesh Kumar got married in 2017 and he was leaving behind his wife, who is now pregnant. The reports stated that the concerned authorities have been probing the accident and the mortal remains of 16 other passengers who died at the crash had handed over to their respective families on Sunday. 

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Kerala plane crash: Deceased Air India's captain was a former Air Force pilot! 

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