Relatives and neighbors gathered outside an apartment in Worli on Wednesday after it emerged that Pinky Mali, a 29-year-old cabin crew member, was on board the plane carrying Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar met with accident earlier in the day. Inside the house, his mother and older sister were insolvent.
Pinky’s father, Shiv Kumar Mali, said he last spoke to his daughter on Tuesday night. “He told me that he was going to Baramati with Ajit Pawar and from there he would travel to Nanded,” he said. “She left early this morning. I came to know about the incident when the news of Ajit Pawar’s plane crash appeared on television. When my daughter’s name appeared in the breaking news, we realized we had lost her.”
Pinky was married and lived in Pune with her husband, where her husband worked as a manager in a private company.
The family said they were waiting for official information about the cause of the accident. “There is a black box on the plane and the exact reason will only be known after an investigation. It could be a technical fault or something else. But we have lost our daughter,” Mali said.
Mali said her daughter’s career as a cabin crew was the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream. In 1989, he worked as a dry cleaner at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhiwhere he lost his job after making a mistake while servicing a plane carrying then Prime Minister VP Singh. “I asked the authorities to give me another chance, but they told me there could be no leniency because it was the Prime Minister’s flight,” he said.
He said he often told Pinky about the incident. “She said I would fulfill my dream,” he recalled. After completing her Higher Secondary Certificate in English, Pinky decided to pursue a career as a cabin crew instead of modelling, at her father’s insistence.
He had previously worked with a national airline for three years before joining a private airline. According to a local resident, Pinky had recently met Ajit Pawar. and told him that his father had been associated with the PNC for several years before changing parties. “She gave him her father’s mobile number. Later, Ajit Pawar called him, but he could not take the call while driving his taxi. Later, his personal assistant sent him a message saying that he would meet him at Bombay”said the resident.
Her younger brother, Karan Mali (23), said she had only informed him that she would travel from Baramati to Nanded. “She didn’t express any anxiety,” he said.
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Cousin Atul Mali (24) said Pinky had been a pillar of support for the family after his mother died last year. “She told me that she would always take care of me and my younger siblings. She was very loving and talked to us at least once a week,” he said. “Every morning I send her a message saying ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Today, around 6 am, she replied, ‘Jai Shree Ram’.”
Pinky is survived by her parents, her husband, her elder sister Preeti, who lives in Thane, and her younger brother Karan, who has completed his education and is currently seeking employment.
The family has been residing for the past six months in a rented apartment on the 18th floor of a Century Mill MHADA building in Warli. Previously they lived on the 12th floor of the same building. Mali owns a flat in a cooperative housing society in Lower Parel, which he has rented out.
Neighbors continued to arrive at the residence throughout the day to offer their condolences as the family waited for more information from authorities.
