Young pilot with Robredo on ill-fated plane wanted to serve Nepal by joining its army

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MASBATE -- It wasn't only that he wanted to fly high in the sky. Kshitiz Chand, 22, went to the Philippines not just to become a pilot, he also wanted to acquire the aviation skills that could make him serve his country by joining the Nepalese Army, the most superior of all state security forces in the landlocked South Asian country, according to his father, Tek Bahadur Chand. 

But Kshitiz's dream died with him after the five-seater Piper Seneca he was riding with veteran pilot Jessup Bahinting, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, and his aide senior police inspector June Paolo Abrazado crashed into the sea off Masbate province on Saturday, August 18. 

In his Facebook account, Kshitiz said that he had graduated from Bahinting's Aviatour Flight School in 2011. The young Nepalese acquired a private plane license from Aviatour and was pursuing another license as commercial plane pilot. 

Arriving in the Philippines from Kathmandu was a long and heartbreaking journey for Tek and Kshitiz's uncle, Damand Chand, three days ago. 

Tek said he couldn't stop crying with the thought that he, the old father, would be the one burying his still very young son, whom he descibed as "kind and thoughtful." 

Tek said Kshitiz's sent them text messages while on board the ill-fated plane on Saturday. He said Kshitiz told him, his mother, and only sibling that he loved them very much. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, the remains of Bahinting and Kshitiz are still inside the plane, which sank upside-down 180 feet to the ocean floor and about 800 meters from the coast.   

Retrieval operations for the remains are being hampered by strong underwater current. Rescuers are planning to lift the plane to extricate the bodies of the two pilots. 

Once Kshitiz's body is retrieved, Tek and Chand said they would immediately bring his remains to Nepal. 

But the two are hoping that they will be able to talk to Abrazado, the lone survivor in the tragic crash, before they go back to their country. 

"We just want to ask him a few questions," Damand told reporters in Masbate on Wednesday. 

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