Hours after the Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers from Dubai crashed at the Calicut International Airport in Kozhikode, members of the Indian Association of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were gripped with shock. But they knew they had to swing into action and help the UAE-based families of the deceased reach Kerala soon.
“We set up a helpline within a few hours and got the list of passengers on that ill-fated flight from the Indian Consulate in Dubai. Through social media platforms and the media, we reached out to the Indian community in the UAE, and asked the families and relatives of the passengers, who would like to go Kerala, to report to us before 11 am on Saturday,” Ajay Kumar, one of the members of the Coordination Committee of the Indian Association of Sharjah, told TNM.
The association is working as an extended arm of the Indian Embassy and Consulate in UAE. They also set up three helpline numbers: 056 5257518, 050 6266546 and 050 3675770.
The Indian Consulate in Dubai, too, is assisting all those who want to travel to Kerala or need any information related to the plane crash incident. “The Consulate will coordinate with Air India by recommending names for those who have to travel related to the tragedy. If needed, they will arrange more flights to Kerala in coordination with the state government and the Ministry of Civil Aviation,” an official at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi told TNM.
However, it is not known yet how many passengers the Consulate is sending.
At the time of writing, the Indian Association of Sharjah is sending eight passengers to Kerala: four from one family (three children and their father) and four other individual passengers. These are immediate families of the four passengers who died in the plane crash - Lailabi, Sheza Fatima, Zhenobia and Saheer Sayed. Saheer’s mother Faiza is seriously injured and undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). One member is related to a passenger named Thajima, who is pregnant and is in the ICU.
“They are being flown to Kerala free of cost. All immediate relatives are being flown to India but the flights are almost full. So, we are considering relatives only as a second option, only if the situation allows so,” said Ajay, adding that many other families may be directly contacting the Consulate to travel to Kerala.
When the association set up the helpline, they received a series of panic calls. “We received calls through other associations and volunteer groups,” said Ajay.
The families in the UAE will be sent to Kerala on Saturday. However, since more families are still contacting the association and the Consulate, it is not known yet if they will board multiple flights under the Vande Bharat Mission or in a single flight.
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