In Mangalore crash, tragedy revisits Chandigarh family

CHANDIGARH - The Air India Express plane crash in Mangalore Saturday morning saw tragedy revisiting the family of an elderly woman in Chandigarh as she lost her Dubai-based daughter in the air disaster.

For Santosh Aggarwal, this was the second time she was losing one of her children to an accident. Her son, his wife and two children died in a road accident nearly eight years ago. Her husband died last year in Chandigarh following a heart-attack.

Her daughter Minu Gupta, who died in the Mangalore air crash, was headed for Manipal town in Karnataka where her son is pursuing a degree in medicine. Minu’s husband, Rahul Gupta, a doctor, runs two hospitals in Dubai. The couple was settled in Dubai since 1991.

Santosh, who is in her 70s and resides in Sector 42 here, said she had returned after visiting her daughter in Dubai in March this year.

Family friends of the Aggarwals said Santosh’s second son, Sameer Aggarwal, an orthopaedician at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here, has left for Mangalore after hearing about the crash.

Minu had studied at the MCM DAV College for girls in Sector 36 before completing her Masters in Science from Punjabi University in Patiala.

The IX 812 Dubai-Mangalore flight overshot the runway Saturday while landing at the Bajpe airport, about 20 km from Mangalore, early Saturday and caught fire after plunging about 300 metres off a cliff.