Bhavye Suneja from New Delhi was the captain of the Lion Air flight plane with 188 people on board that crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The 31-year-old was a resident of Mayur Vihar in east Delhi. He had completed his schooling from Ahlcon Public School in 2005 and received his pilot license from Bel-Air International in 2009. Before joining Lion Air in March 2011, he had worked as a trainee pilot with Emirates in 2010.
According to Lion Air, Suneja had an experience of 6,000 flight hours.
One of the senior officials said that Suneja was also considering a posting in India. "We spoke this July. He is a very sweet sounding person. Being an experienced pilot of the B737 with an incident, accident-free record, we were keen to have him with us because of his good credentials. His only request was that he wanted a Delhi posting as he was from the city," a senior official told The Times Of India.
However, his request was not considered as most of the pilots are from India and they demand to get posted in their locality. So, Suneja was asked to continue in the same place for two years, the senior officer said.
"We hope everyone on the flight is safe, we are all praying for their safety," he added.
The plane which was travelling from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang vanished into the sea within 13 minutes of takeoff from the Indonesian capital. A video clip of the incident showed a slick of fuel on the surface of the water
Yusuf Latif, a rescue agency spokesperson, said the search and rescue authorities are still looking for the remaining parts of the plane.
