New Delhi/Mumbai, May 22: 10,200 flying hours; 19 takeoffs and touchdowns at Mangalore airport.

For Capt. Zlatko Glusica, it would have been his 20th. But it wasn’t to be for the 53-year-old British national of Serbian origin, one of hundreds of expatriate pilots working in the Indian aviation sector since he joined Air India Express in 2008.

He had a “fair amount” of experience on the Mangalore terrain, civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar told reporters in Delhi, trying to dispel the impression that the pilot could have been unfamiliar with the airport’s topography.

Of his 10,200 hours of flying experience, 7,000 were as commander of an aircraft. Glusica also had over 2,700 hours of experience of flying a Boeing 737-800, the make of the plane that crashed today.

Nambiar ruled out any communication problem between Glusica and the air traffic control at Mangalore. The pilot, he said, had a good command over English despite being of Serbian origin.

In Mumbai, family members of H.S. Ahluwalia, the co-pilot of the ill-fated plane, refused to speak to the media.

“He was a brilliant and carefree person,” a neighbour said.

Ahluwalia is survived by his mother Kulwant Kaur, two brothers and a sister.

The 41-year-old had joined Air India Express in April 2009. He had 3,650 hours of flying experience, of which 3,350 hours were on Boeing 737 aircraft. He had flown to and from Mangalore 66 times.

Airhostesses Sujata Survasi (top) and Tejal Kamulkar, who were killed in the crash. (PTI)

Airhostess Tejal A. Kamulkar had joined Air India Express four months back. The resident of Dombivili in Mumbai is survived by her parents and brother. On May 5, she had celebrated her birthday.

The other crew members were Sujata Survasi, Yoganther Rana, and Mohammad Ali. While Sujata was from Mumbai, Rana was from Kalimpong in Bengal.

Hundreds of friends, family members and residents gathered at the Saubhagya building in Dombivli, where the Kamulkar family resides, to mourn Tejal’s death.

“Tejal always dreamt of becoming an airhostess since childhood. The aeroplane was her favourite toy. She would speak endlessly about her flying experiences,” Ankita Pokhre, a cousin, said.

Reporters were barred from speaking to Tejal’s family as her father Anil had not broken the news of their daughter’s death to her mother Bharti and brother Gaurav, an engineering student.

On receiving a call from Air India, Anil had left for Mangalore airport immediately.

Tejal studied in Madhvi school and completed her BCom degree from Model College in Dombivli before deciding to become an airhostess.

She enrolled for a course at the International Air Transport Association (IITA), and got her break with Air India in February.

“The last we met was on her birthday. I can’t believe she is no longer with us,” Tejal’s neighbour and close friend Pradnya Lele said.

Almost the same age as Tejal, Sujata completed her schooling at Swami Muktananda High School and graduation from Bhavan’s College in Andheri, close to her Versova residence.

In her Facebook profile, she wrote she was “absolutely” in love with music and “can’t live without it”.

She also said she loved meeting people and travelling to different cities.