BSF jet crash: 38-yr-old pilot died before naming his month-old son

Deputy commandant Bhagwati Prasad Bhatt, the pilot of the BSF plane that crashed near the Delhi airport on Tuesday killing all 10 people on board, was to name his month-old son in a few days. Sub-inspector Rabindra Kumar, also on board, was never meant to be on that plane. Tuesday’s tragic crash not only cut their lives short, it left their families wondering at the unfairness of it all.

Narrating his story to friends on Twitter, he wrote a day before his death, “A poor boy who later joined the BSF is now a pilot flying aeroplane for the country (sic).”

“We have not even named the youngest one. We were supposed to have a grand ceremony. The older one, aged four, has seen his father but the younger one will have to grow up without one. Life has been unfair. We do not know what to say,” said Bhatt’s older brother, Rajender Bhatt.

Blessed with a new baby, 38-year-old Bhatt, a resident of Sarojini Nagar, was a happy man who took pride in his job, his social media interactions revealed.

Read: BSF to probe if pilot of crashed jet reported snag before take-off

Kumar, a 49-year-old father of two, would have left for Ranchi by train on Monday afternoon, but for a last-minute call from headquarters instructing him to cancel his reservation and take the chartered plane the next day.

“My father’s dream was to send us abroad for further studies. A call at the eleventh hour changed his travel plans and turned our lives upside down. I will always miss my father,” said his 18-year-old daughter Saloni, standing alone outside their Lodhi Colony house.

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