Mangalore tragedy: Air India crash pilot's family speaks out

[email protected] (Indian Express)
March 10, 2011

glusica

New Delhi, March 10: As he piloted an Air India Express flight from Dubai into Mangalore on May 22 last year, Captain Zlatko Glusica carried in his bags a golden Seiko watch — gifted to him by his two children on his 55th birthday.


Merima, 31, and younger brother Alexander never found out whether Glusica liked the watch. It is just one of the many questions that continue to haunt the family one year after the crash of that flight, for which the blame has been put by many quarters on the foreign commander of the flight — the Serbian Glusica.


In their last exchange, on May 18, 2010, over Skype — just after Glusica had reached Mangalore to join duty from home town Belgrade — Merima asked him about the gift. He told her he was yet to unpack his bags.


Four days later, Alexander, then preparing for a qualifying test for his pilot's licence, called up Merima to tell her about the crash. “In disbelief, I rang my father's mobile phone, which was ringing endlessly and he was not answering it...,” he said in an e-mail to the newspaper, the first time the family is talking to the Indian media.


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News Network
April 4,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 4: Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner (DC) Sindhu B Rupesh in an official reminder has ordered milk unions to disburse about 5,000 litres of milk to residents of notified and non-notified slums, construction labourers and migrant labourers and their families in shelters in the district.

A decision regarding the free distribution of milk to such needy families was taken in a meeting by the chief minister on April 1.

The DC has ordered cooperative milk unions in the district to distribute milk to such families from April 4 till April 14.

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News Network
March 27,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 27: Nine throat swab samples that were sent for testing of the coronavirus, have been declared as negative while samples of four more persons are currently being tested, official sources said on Friday.

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B. Rupesh said that 2,902 people are under home quarantine in the district as of today while three were admitted to hospitals for observation.

Around 38,051 people have been inspected, so far, here in this district.

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News Network
March 10,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 10: Four airports which are run by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), including Mangaluru International airport, have been adjudged among the best aerodromes in the world, winning 10 awards in four different categories at the 2019 ASQ awards.

ASQ is a globally established programme that measures passengers’ satisfaction while traveling through an airport. Airports Council International (ACI), which is an independent agency of airport operators, carries out international benchmarking of aerodromes.

“Four AAI airports — Chandigarh, Mangaluru, Trivandrum and Lucknow — have been adjudged the best in the world in recently announced 2019 ASQ awards. These airports won 10 awards in four categories,” Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in a release here on Tuesday.

The survey measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators that include eight major categories such as access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage, retail, airport environment and arrival services.

The four categories in which these airports bagged the best airport awards were size and region, environment and ambiance, customer service and infrastructure and facilitation, as per the AAI.

The survey was carried out at across 356 airports across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The survey results are monitored by airport tariff regulator AERA, NITI Aayog, and civil aviation Ministry, the release added.

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