Dubai: "When the crash happened I had no idea that he was in the country to begin with," said Mohammad Kambal Al Zubair, a cousin of Captain Mohammad Ali Al Halthawi, who was killed in Wednesday's plane crash.
"He was a man who had his house open to everyone. He was a good man who will be missed by all who knew him."
Six crew members on board the Khartoum-bound Sudanese plane died when it crashed soon after taking off from Sharjah airport. The Boeing 707 belonging to Azza Air was leased to Sudan Airways.
A pilot who witnessed the crash said Al Halthawi heroically avoided further casualties by deliberately turning the plane 90 degrees so it would nosedive into the ground, upon realising that he could not save it.
Al Zubair, who has been a resident of the UAE for more than 30 years and lives in Sharjah, said Al Halthawi would always visit him whenever he was in the UAE. Except this time.
Al Halthawi leaves behind a wife and eight children in Khartoum. He was the only male child and the eldest of four siblings.
Ahmad Qasam Al Seed, a representative of Azza Airways, said family members were asked to go to the Sudanese Club, where a memorial service was held Thursday, and provide a DNA sample to identify the victims, as part of the ongoing investigation.
"The airline is ready to repatriate the bodies and they will be transported within two to three days, once we get all the DNA samples from family members. All families were cooperative except for one family who refused to provide a sample," said Al Seed.
Officials from the Sudan-ese Embassy, Consulate and Azza Airways, also attended the memorial service.
Rudha Mohammad, who came to pay her respects, said although she did not know the victims, she felt that she had also lost a loved one.
"We are a very close community and feel each other's loss."
