Body of Goan pilot Oswald de Abreu arrives

The mortal remains of Wing Commander Oswald de Abreu, who died after an IAF MiG-27 fighter jet crashed near Hashimara in West Bengal on Tuesday, arrived in the State by a special aircraft on Wednesday night.

The final journey of the 39-year-old departed wing commander began at 1 pm on Wednesday, where after a send-off ceremony at Hashimara air base, the coffin carrying his remains accompanied by the bereaved family took off by a special aircraft.

Accompanying the family and the coffin included a delegation of IAF officers headed by Sqdn Ldr Sreejit.

The body was expected to arrive in Goa at 7 pm. However, the aircraft developed snags and had a previously unscheduled stop at Allahabad, before the scheduled refuelling stop at Nagpur. The technical problems however persisted at Nagpur, until an alternate IL-76 aircraft was requisitioned for the remainder of the journey.

A delegation of the bereaved family was present at the Dabolim airport to receive the coffin, which arrived at about 10.30 pm.
Deone Menezes, a cousin of the departed wing commander, along with other family members accompanied the body to the mortuary at INHS Jeevanthi, where it will be preserved until the funeral arrangements are finalised.

While Wing Cdr Mukul, CO at Hashimara Air base coordinated the arrangements at the Hashimara air base, Cdr Mathur of INS Hansa and Cdr Karuli of INS Gomantak supervised operations in the State.

It may be recalled that Wing Commander Abreu, who was flying the aircraft, was killed in the air crash, while the aircraft was taking off from the Hashimara airbase on a sortie to Bagdogra. The aircraft had taken off from Hashimara and within a few minutes, he reported fire in the engines before it crashed within the airbase at about 2.15 pm.