Mangalore crash: bodies of co-pilot, hostess brought to Mumbai

Bodies of co-pilot Captain Harbinder Singh Ahluwalia and airhostess Tejal Kamulkar, who died in the Mangalore-plane crash on Saturday, were brought to their hometown here on Sunday for the last rites.

Family members, relatives, and friends received the coffins at the airport.

"May God Bless him and his family peace and tranquility. This is what we want to say. We all have arrived here to sympathize with them. We will take his body to his house for prayer, then we will take the body to Gurdwara where the priest will pray for God's blessing for him. At 9 o'clock we will take the body to cremation ground for the last rites," said Inder Singh Kohli, Captain Ahluwalia's neighbour.

On Saturday morning (May 22), the Air India Express Flight IX-812 from Dubai overshot the table-top runway at the Mangalore airport and plunged over a cliff into a wooded valley, killing 158 persons.

There were 160 passengers and six crew members on board Flight IX-812. The passengers included 137 adults, 19 children and 4 infants. Eight passengers survived miraculously.

The plane burst into flames after the crash, which occurred at 6.10 a.m.

The captain of the flight, Z. Glusica, a British national of Serbian origin, and his co-pilot H.S. Ahluwalia were among the dead.