Tears, grief, final goodbye: Last rites of AI pilot Kunder, flight attendant Songhare held

Mumbai, Jun 19 (PTI) Hundreds of people, including inconsolable family members and friends, gave an emotional farewell to First Officer Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, and flight attendant Roshni Songhare whose last rites were held on Thursday.

The last rites of Kunder were conducted at Sewri Christian Cemetery in Mumbai in the afternoon, while Songhare, who was also on board the ill-fated aircraft, was cremated in adjoining Thane district, hours after their mortal remains were brought from Ahmedabad, a week after the tragedy.

Many people with moist eyes were seen holding Kunder's pictures in their hands as they bid final goodbye to him, a week after his death in the crash.

Earlier in the morning, the casket carrying the remains of Kunder reached the Mumbai airport by a flight and was taken to his residence at Suntek City in Ram Mandir Road, Goregaon (West), by his family members.

Several friends and relatives of Kunder as well as local residents gathered at his residence to pay homage and later participated in his funeral.

Kunder lived with his elderly parents and a younger sister in Mumbai.

The mortal remains were kept at Kunder's home till 1 pm and later taken to the cemetery.

The London-bound Air India flight AI-171 carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed on June 12. All but one on board the plane died along with 29 on the ground when the aircraft smashed into a medical hostel complex in the Gujarat city.

The ill-fated flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal along with First Officer Kunder. While Sabharwal had 8,200 hours of flying experience, Kunder 1,100 hours, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) earlier said in a statement.

The aircraft departed from the Ahmedabad airport at 1.39 pm. The chief pilot of the plane (Sabharwal) issued a 'Mayday' distress call, denoting a full emergency, soon after take-off, to the Air Traffic Control. Moments later, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner smashed into the complex located outside the airport compound.

The funeral of Sabharwal, who also hailed from Mumbai, was performed on Tuesday.

The last rites of flight attendant Songhare (27) were conducted in her hometown Dombivli in Thane district in the morning. A mournful Rajendra Songhare, her father, conducted the last rites at a local crematorium.

After her identity was confirmed through DNA testing, her mortal remains were handed over to the family late Wednesday night.

A special Air India flight transported the body to Mumbai, from where it was taken to Dombivli.

A steady stream of mourners visited her residence to pay their final respects.

Songhare had served with SpiceJet before joining Air India two years ago. Tributes poured in on her Instagram account which had over 54,000 followers.

She was set to marry a Merchant Navy officer from Thane in March next year.

"She had just begun to settle in life. We had dreams... they are now shattered," said a family member.

Of the 270 people who died in the disaster, 19 were either residents of Maharashtra or were connected with the state, including both pilots, an official said.

Of the 19, last rites of five victims were conducted in Gujarat as they were residing in the adjoining state, he said.

So far, 12 bodies of the victims, including the pilots and crew members hailing from Maharashtra, have been handed over to their family members for conducting last rites after identifying them through DNA matching, he said.

The bodies of crew members Irfan Shaikh and Deepak Pathak were yet to be handed over to family members as the process of matching their DNA was ongoing, the official said. PTI ZA COR DC GK KRK RSY