When 47-year-old co-pilot Maria Zuberi left her Mira Road home on Thursday morning, she told her husband that the test flight planned for the day may not happen due to bad weather. She also messaged her husband after reaching the Juhu airport.
“I had sent her a message at 1.20 p.m., hoping she may have landed by that time, but there was no reply,” said Ms. Zuberi’s husband Prabhat Kathuria, who read a news update on his mobile phone about the plane crash. “Her Chief Pilot P.S. Rajput had communicated to her that the weather was bad and they may not fly. I wonder what happened later — was it that the company pushed them to fly or did the Chief Pilot give in?” said Mr. Kathuria, a lawyer.
Experienced pilots
Ms. Zuberi had 1,000 hours of flying experience and had been flying for the past 17 years. “She was a very good pilot, the first in her Muslim family to choose this profession,” her husband said, adding that UY Aviation Private Limited, owner of the aircraft, did not communicate with them or come to the hospital.
“Both the pilots were senior personnel. The company should be blamed for not correcting a possible technical snag in the plane,” alleged Mr. Kathuria, who said that his wife had also flown a Dassault Falcon. She had earlier worked for AAA Aviation Pvt. Ltd. The couple have a 15-year-old daughter.
The Chief Pilot of the crashed King Air C-90, Pradeep Rajput, was never in favour of test flights because of the risk involved. On Thursday, he was even more against it as the weather appeared bad. “I wonder why they were asked to fly,” said Kulwinder Chauhan, Mr. Rajput’s brother-in-law.
“Pradeep was an experienced pilot and had been working for 20-25 years. I can’t imagine how this happened,” Mr. Chauhan said. Mr. Rajput, a resident of Delhi, is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
