Kerala native Gautam who died in Canada plane crash dropped out of engineering to be a pilot

Gautam Santhosh, the 27-year-old pilot from Thiruvananthapuram, who died in a plane crash in Canada was not scheduled to fly on the fateful day. A day before his flight burst into flames shortly after takeoff, he had flown 12 hours as part of the job.

He was supposed to take a day off on Saturday when his flight crashed. "His friends told us that he headed to the airport and got on board just to enjoy the view," said  Ajith Kumar, a close relative.

A twin-engine Piper Navajo plane owned by an aerial survey company with a capacity to carry eight passengers crashed near the Trans-Canada Highway near the Deer Lake airport on July 26 at 5.30 pm. The pilot, a 54-year-old man, is yet to be identified. Gautam was the lone passenger on the flight.

An eyewitness from the area, Dean Major, told CBC News that the flight was a ball of fire. He heard a pop and then just big black smoke coming from the trees. When he drove up the road, he found the plane had crashed in a ditch on the highway and there was nothing left - just a skeleton of a plane. A CBC reporter, Onmanorama, spoke to, said that the cause of the crash is not known yet and is being investigated by Canada's Transportation Safety Board.

The mortal remains of Gautam are kept at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for Newfoundland and Labrador in the St. John's Health Sciences Centre. Before heading to the airport, Gautam had sent a message to his mother Sreekala, a senior bank official. "He would call her in the morning and evening. When there was no update from him for a long time, we were worried," said Ajith.

His sister, Dr.Ganga, who is in Bengaluru, got in touch with his friends in Canada, who told her about the accident. Later, the information was communicated officially. A DNA report was collected from Ganga and sent to the authorities in Canada to identify the body, which was completely charred in the accident.

It was only a week ago that Gautam had agreed to get married. "He wanted a permanent residency in Canada and kept delaying marriage. We all coaxed him and finally he agreed. He wanted to take his parents to Canada and settle there," said Ajith who spoke to Gautam last week from Chennai when he went to visit Sreekala where she is employed.

Gautam did his schooling at Loyola school in Thiruvananthapuram and then moved to Bengaluru when his mother was transferred. He completed class 12 from Bishop Cotton School. His parents wanted him to be an engineer but within a year, he dropped out of Mechanical Engineering simply out of love for flying. He joined Chimes Aviation Academy and after his training, he was selected by Jet Airways. In 2019, when Jet Airways was grounded, he decided to move to Canada.

Gautam was employed as an instructor at an aviation school in Vancouver. Two weeks ago, he took up a three-months long assignment with an aerial survey company. "He had convinced his parents to move to Canada with him. He loved flying. When we were told about the crash, we initially wanted to believe it was a small accident, but when we realised there was nothing much left of him, we were shattered," Ajith said. Gautam had come home in December and it was only a year ago when his sister got married.  He was close to Ajith and his brother Shafin, who is now in Australia.

The family has written to Shashi Tharoor MP and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for assistance to repatriate the mortal remains of Gautam.