'My sister's death in Kanishka was a crushing blow'

MUMBAI: A long time has passed sinceAir India's Kanishka aircraft, on flight from Montreal to New Delhi exploded inmid-air on 23 June 1985 killing all 329 persons aboard. But, eventoday, its mention conjures up painful memories for the victim's families. Amongthem is TV and film actor Vijayendra Ghatge whose sister perished in thecrash.Ghatge, best known for his roles in Rajashri films and and was seen as AishwaryaRai's husband in had toldtimesofindia.com in an earlier interview that his sister's death was a crushingblow to him and his parents. Reliving the traumatic moment he said,"I can never forget the fateful day when a friend called to inform me about theplane crash. It was a day of hope and despair as the rescue operations wereunderway and we were hoping for survivors to be found." Soon after,their worst fears were confirmed. Later, Air India flew the relatives to thecrash site. Sangeeta, who was the baby of the family, worked as a cabin crewwith the airline. The family will forever regret the fact that their daughterwas not scheduled to fly on that day, "She had specially asked for that flight,"said the actor who had became rage on television with his role in the '80s megaserial . Breakingthe shattering news to his parents was the hardest task. On the pretext of beingill, he called them to Mumbai from their home in Indore and then informed themabout their young daughter's tragic end. "While dad refused to accept the grimreality my mother didn't react immediately. She went about her life pretendingeverything to be normal. Months later, consumed by her bottled emotions, shefinally broke down. It triggered off a lot of health problems in her thateventually turned chronic," he laments.Twenty two years have passedsince the air crash but Ghatge feels that time never heals. "It dulls the painsomewhat. But the huge void left by the death of a loved one can never befilled." He remembers his sister as an energetic, beautiful, ambitious youngachiever who was the head-girl of her school and a wonderful dancer.Apart from his personal loss, in the aftermath of the tragedy,certain sobering thoughts dawned on him. "Terrorism is a striking feature of ourlife today and it can strike any of us. We all know this but tend to think thatit will happen to others and not us. I was in that frame of mind that Kanishkacrash happened. Therefore, my message is, as citizens of the world, we have tobecome more security-conscious and not be complacent. Remain alert at publicplaces and avert a possible disaster."On the day of the Kanishkacrash, a bomb blew up at Tokyo's Narita airport minutes before another Air Indiaplane was scheduled to take off. It killed two baggage handlers.Earlier Canadian investigators had said that Sikh terrorist outfitBabbar Khalsa, seeking revenge for India's 1984 raid on the golden Temple inAmritsar, planted a bomb aboard Kanishka. The same group of people were alsolinked with the Tokyo blast. The subsequent investigations seemed to have movedat a slow pace, as the first arrests in the case were only made in2000.Over $30 million were reportedly spent in the globalinvestigation that was the worst aviation tragedy till the 9/11 happened and wasthe subject of stormy debates in the Canadian Parliament. The kithand kin of the crash victims coped with their anguish and moved on in life. Butterrorism, the scourge behind the downing of Kanishka's flight 182, is stillalive.