‘Art of Living counsellors to counsel Air India staff’

MANGALORE - The “young” cabin crew of Air India is so traumatised after Saturday’s plane crash, in which 158 people were killed, that volunteers from Art of Living have been sought to counsel them, Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav said Sunday.

“Our cabin crew is very young, they are in the age group of 19-25. And they have never seen a tragedy, a situation like this before. They are traumatised. That is why we have roped in doctors and counsellors of the Art of Living to counsel them,” Jadhav said. Art of Living is a voluntary socio-spiritual organisation, headed by Sri Sri Ravishankar.

“The counselling centres will not just be in Mangalore, but also in Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and wherever we have our offices,” he added. The counselling will also be done for the rest of the staff.

Jadhav said that a foreign agency’s assistance has been sought on emergency response and disaster management.

“The team will come here and also counsel the relatives of the deceased. We are counselling the families too,” he said.

He announced that an aircraft has been kept on standby for the families and relatives of the victims in Mumbai.

“We are keeping an aircraft on standby for the families of the victims who need to travel to Cochin, Kozhikode. As and when there is a demand, the aircraft will fly them,” he said.