Belated news of man on flight shocks family

Belated news of man on flight shocks family
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC 28: IT was through a credit card number that the family of Ravikumar, one of the passengers in the hijacked Indian Airlines plane, got to know the shattering news that their near one was going through the most harrowing experience of his life.

Ravikumar, 41, a merchant navy captain hailing from Tripunithura in Ernakulam district, who went to Kathmandu on a business trip was to return to New Delhi by road. As fate would have it, he changed his plans and decided to fly to Delhi. When he failed to turn up on Monday, panic set in and the family began to desperately make inquiries with IA.

The IA office at Kathmandu did not have much details. Neither the surname nor the address was provided when the ticket was booked on Dec 22 at the IA office in Kathmandu.

Finally, the number of the credit card on which Ravikumar had booked his ticket was traced in the IA office records, which confirmed that he was on the hijacked plane.

He had already booked a ticket in the Kerala Express toreach Kochi on Monday, Ravikumar's wife Geeta Ravi told PTI here.

Although the IA passengers' list published in the newspapers the day after the hijack mentioned a Ravikumar, the family of four wife and three sons had not even the slightest inkling that their breadwinner was far away in Kandahar as a hostage in a hijacked plane