Mother got news of high-flying son Deepak Sathe's death on her birthday

NAGPUR: It was Neela Sathe’s 83rd birthday on Saturday when she woke up to the news of her son, Wing Commander Deepak Sathe’s death in the Kozhikode air crash . Sathe was the pilot of the ill-fated flight. His presence of mind is reported to have saved a larger casualty.

Neela’s daughter, Anjali Parashar, who lives in Mumbai, had planned to give her parents a surprise, but had to rush to Kozhikode to collect Deepak’s body.

The Sathes have been living in the city’s Bharat Nagar since 1950s when the father, Brigadier Vasant (now 87), retired from the army education corps (AEC).

The couple lost their elder son, second Lieutenant Vikas Sathe , in an accident. He was returning after a military exercise in 1981. Deepak was Sathe senior’s younger son who had joined the Indian Air Force (IAF) around the same time. He later worked for Air India and was piloting Vande Bharat flights.

Deepak had met with a major accident in Chandigarh when he was still in IAF, injuring his skull. He was airlifted for treatment in Delhi. “The news of Vikas’s death and Deepak’s recovery almost reached together,” said Survana Sathe, a relative.

“We got the news about Deepak’s death at night, but we waited till morning to inform his parents. It would have been too harsh as his parents have yet to come to terms with the death of their elder son and now, it’s Deepak. Finally, we had to tell them,” said their tenant.

A relative shared the reaction of Sathe’s parents, saying, “The mother said why should God take them both, and remained stoic. The father has been blank since then. He hasn’t spoken much and has not even shed a tear.”

State home minister Anil Deshmukh met Sathe’s parents on Saturday. Their relatives asked Deshmukh to ensure that the civil aviation ministry come up with a solution for tabletop airports, and have an arrangement to ensure safety if the plan skids.

As soon as relatives and the media reached their home, the couple kept their composure, obliging journalists and asking them to speak in both Hindi and Marathi. “Deepak was a bright student and excelled in everything. He won all the medals in NDA. At the Air Force Academy, he was presented with the sword of honour. The sword belonged to the Nizam of Hyderabad. But then we are helpless in the hands of fate,” said mother Neela. Father Vasant refused to speak and merely repeated lines prompted by a relative.

Opening up gradually, Deepak’s mother began talking about past incidents. “He flew MiG 21 and once had landed at the Sonegaon airport. That was long ago. It was only then that I came to know that there is a separate area for the air force at Sonegaon. There I read the lines ‘you will be no more to make another mistake’. My son had the best of everything, right from skill, eyesight, memory and alertness,” she recalled.

“When in Air India, he used to often land here for refuelling and send a message to get some snacks from home. Once he had asked for ladoos and the messenger was told where they were kept. His flights would often take-off before we could even reach the airport with the packets,” she remembered.

Survana said, “My sister is an air hostess and she used to say that the crew would rest assured when Deepak was flying. However, in one of the conversations, he had mentioned about problems at the Kozhikode air strip.”

His nephew added, “He would mention about the problems at the airports of Kerala saying that at times, the pilots had to land after re-flying.”

Just then he showed a message from a relative from Kozhikode saying there were no signs of injury on Deepak’s body.

Deepak was an MiG 21 and Mirage pilot. He had flown in the Mirages to India when the first planes were acquired from France. He had been a test pilot for HAL too, before joining Air India. Around 58, Deepak had settled in Mumbai, and has two sons, say his kin.

“Sometime in the 1990s, when Deepak was a test pilot, the plane's engine had stopped and he was asked to eject it. But he did not eject and landed the plane safely,” relatives said.

“Deepak was a seasoned pilot and we refuse to believe that the Kozhikode crash was his fault,” they added.