GUNTUR : The death of co-pilot Anju Khatiawada on the doomed flight, which crashed in Nepal on Sunday, came as a shocker to her classmates in Tenali of Andhra Pradesh. Khatiawada was co-piloting Yeti Airlines flight 691 when it crashed into a gorge near the tourist town of Pokhara, killing everyone onboard. The tragedy in Nepal was the deadliest aviation accident the country had seen in the past 30 years.
Anju, a Nepalese national, had completed her intermediate at Vivekananda College in Tenali of Guntur district. Along with another 125 students from Nepal, Anju came to Tenali to pursue her intermediate in 1995 and scored 72 per cent.
Reminiscing Anju’s memories, one of her batchmates, Makutam Siva told TNIE that she was a loyal friend who tried to be in touch with everyone. “Even though I lost contact with her after graduation, but she contacted me through social media after a few years. We had been in touch since then. I was very proud that she was a pilot. She had invited me to Kathmandu and promised to take me on a tourist plane ride a few months ago,” Siva said.
“Her husband Dipak Pokhrel was co-piloting a Yeti Airlines flight. It was his death that spurred Anju to pursue a career in aviation,” he added. Distraught at her husband’s loss, it was Anju’s child who boosted her motivation. After four years of Dipak’s death, Anju was on the path of becoming a pilot, overcoming many hurdles to train in the United States.
After completing her training, she joined Yeti Airlines. She was one of the six women who were employed by the airlines as pilots and had flown close to 6,400 hours. Later, Anju remarried and had her second child as she continued to build her career.
“Though we used to have very brief conversations, she used to speak about her career with so much zeal that one would easily understand her love and passion for aviation,” said Siva. “We were all shell-shocked after learning about the deadly crash,” he added.