Nidhi Chaphekar, a Jet Airways cabin crew member from Mumbai and a mother of two, is depicted in the viral image covered in dust with a shocked look on her face.
Two Jet Airways cabin crew members, Nidhi Chaphekar and Amit Motwani, were injured in the explosions at a Brussels airport on Tuesday morning.
A Jet Airways manager says a flight attendant injured in the Belgium attacks is undergoing treatment for burns and has been placed in a medically induced coma.
Bernard Guisset, a Jet Airways manager in Brussels, said Nidhi Chaphekar has burns over 15 percent of her body and has a fractured foot, but is out of danger.
The image of Chaphekar taken right after the blast was one of the most searing photographs taken Tuesday. It showed the 40-year-old mother of two from Mumbai, her bright yellow uniform ripped across her chest. Her hair was caked with soot, and blood streaked down her face.
As a chief flight attendant on Jet Airways’ long-haul flights, Chaphekar, 40, was in charge of a red-eye flight to Brussels, just days before the airline closed its European hub. She would then take an onward leg to Newark, and arrive back home in India in five days’ time.
Chaphekar was walking through departures when she was caught by the force of the second of two blasts, causing injuries to her eye and ankle. She had slumped backward into the closest seat, as passengers around her made panicked calls.
Nidhi’s husband, while speaking to the media had said that they were in touch with Jet Airways staff but had not received any update on her since Thursday morning. Nidhi’s brother-in-law, Nilesh Chaphekar, had said that she was on an in-flight management duty and had been working with Jet Airways for 20 years.
