Ghatkopar Plane Crash: Firm has not condoled kin, says Mariya Zuberi's uncle

Mariya Zuberi's uncle and Urdu poet — Gauhar Raza — squarely blamed UY aviation for putting the lives of its employees in jeopardy. Zuberi was the co-pilot on the ill-fated flight that crashed in Ghatkopar on Thursday, killing four others.

Raza recalls Mariya fondly as an unassuming, down-to-earth girl who grew up in a family of educationalists, freedom fighters and intellectuals, and inherited their values.

"She chose a challenging job," says Raza, "It is not a traditional trade within the family. Precarity always follows you when you fly.

"If a child from the family still decides to pursue such a career and fly high to touch the sky, it is no mere feat," he says.

Raza said that Mariya told her family before leaving on Thursday that she would be back soon since the weather was too bad to fly. He has demanded that the government probe the "great urgency" that forced the staff to carry out the test flight.

"Test flights are undertaken when weather conditions are favourable," asserts Raza. "Everyone in the technical team and even the pilots had said that the weather would not improve and it didn't. In such situation, who permitted and pressured them to undertake the test flight? Also considering that this was the first test flight of an aircraft that had not been used for a long time."

Mariya and her co-pilot, Captain Pradeep Singh Rajput, saved many lives by landing the craft in the open area of an under-construction building.

"Who is responsible for her death?," asks Raza, "We would like to know and we would like to know fast. Were the lives of these highly-skilled people put on the line for the hunger of profit? If that is the case, then somebody should be held responsible so that this doesn't happen again in fly-by-night companies. If these activities come under pressure and flout all rules and norms, then somebody should be held responsible."

He complains that neither the company nor the government has come forward to offer condolences or express remorse to the family.

"Is that how you treat your talented employees?" says Raza. "You don't even reach out to their families. You don't inform them about what kind of inquiry that will take place?"

All the bereaved uncle can do is keep crying that the girl who played in his arms will never return.