Seven people including six pilgrims and a woman pilot were killed in a chopper crash near the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu earlier this week.
The woman pilot was identified as Sumita Vijayan from Hyderabad.
However, ‘Sumita Vijayan’ has now come out in the open to claim that she is alive and is living in Dubai!
This ‘Sumita Vijayan’ is one whose photo had been mistakenly used by media outlets for the pilot of the same name who died in the helicopter crash.
Sumita Vijayan is a Kerala-born resident who lives in Dubai.
Her family and friends frantically called her on Tuesday morning after seeing her picture in newspapers a day after the chopper crash.
With the deceased pilot’s picture unavailable, several media outlets used Sumita Vijayan’s photos available on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
In the process, they used the picture of the wrong Sumita Vijayan and hence the confusion.
“I had recently visited Delhi. All my dear and near ones called me and they were panic stricken,” Mail Today quoted Sumita Vijayan as saying.
Sumita said her relatives and friends in India got worried on seeing the picture as she had been to Delhi recently.
“Unfortunately for me I did travel to Delhi recently… so they almost believed that when they saw my picture,” she said, according to the daily.
Sumita then had to clarify on Facebook that she is alive.
“Dear all, please do not be overwhelmed with the rubbish by media!! I m very much alive and breathing!!” she wrote.
Sumita Vijayan was born in Kerala, brought up in Mumbai, and has been living in Dubai for the last 15 years.
She has threatened to sue media outlets which used her picture if they fail to apologise.
