My husband is a brave man, he will make it — Capt’s wife

“It was just the usual conversation between husband and wife. We were leaving for a holiday and I guess it will be a little postponed,” says she.Sharan had joined Indian Airlines (IA) in 1983 and has done nearly 10,000 flying hours in a career spanning 13 years. He is rated as an “outstanding pilot” and more than justifies the epithets, say colleagues, with the kind of steely nerves he has displayed. The hours, the tension and fatigue but, look at the near blind landing he has made in Lahore,” says a pilot who has flown along with Sharan on several flights.

His co-pilot S Rajinder is equally experienced. Rajinder is from Hyderabad and joined IA in 1992. He has around 3000 flying hours. Flight engineer A K Jaggia, 56 comes from IA stock. His father K K Jaggia was a regional director with IA. Jaggia has worked with IA for nearly one year and his anxious family can barely hold back their tears. “Is any one doing something substantial? Is my father safe?” asks a family member. IA officials fondly reminisce about Jaggia.

“He is a most lovable person. Very experienced, he will hold everyone together. Sharan could not have a better partner,” says an IA director.Partnership is something this crew would know about as three of the air-hostesses Kavita Mukherjee, Kalpana Majumdar and Tapa Devnath joined IA together six years ago. IA officials say that the girls were always known as the three musketeers. They used to bid for flights together, remembers a colleague.

Now the three along with Sapna Menon, 30 who joined IA five years ago, M Satheesh and Anil Sharma are holding the fort coping with the traumatized passengers.

“They will not be found wanting. This crew has coped with the worst aviation nightmare. They are so young but, they will make it,” say IA officials in the Airline house with anxiety writ large on their faces. In fact, IA officials have been keeping a night-long vigil at their headquarters here to update the affected family members. Clustered around the television sets, family members coping with the trauma say that lack of information is the worst aspect of the crisis.