LAHORE, July 13: “I never thought we would not see her alive again when we saw her off at seven in the morning as she left home for the airport.”

Life will never be the same for the family of Amira Sikandar, one of the two airhostesses who died in the Monday Fokker plane crash in Multan. Leaving behind a husband and three daughters, the youngest being just four, Amira is remembered by her husband for her resilience, determination, sense of duty and a passion for flying.

“She wanted to be a pilot. When that could not happen, she opted for becoming part of the cabin crew,” Sikandar Azeem told Dawn.

“She had just turned 37; that’s no age to go. She was dauntless and brave, and took her job religiously. There was no question of dissuading her from flying. She made us all proud by her courage, by the energy she brought to the family, especially our three daughters.”

The only crew member to have jumped from the nose-diving plane, and landing in the field before the Fokker hit the ground, Amira succumbed to her injuries before medical aid arrived.

“Eye-witnesses told me that she was alive when she landed on the ground. They said she kept crying for help, but it was too late by the time the ambulance came to the rescue,” Sikandar Azeem narrated.

“She wanted our daughters to become pilots, a dream she herself could not pursue. Even as an airhostess, she tried to train as a pilot until she said she realised the profession still did not have much scope for women. She hoped things would change by the time our daughters grew up into young women.”

Amira was doing her master’s in psychology from the Punjab University when she joined the PIA in 1994. She preferred the new job to completing her degree. College friends recall her as being one who was full of zest for life, for dreaming dreams to achieve in life what many other girls simply would not. Flying was one such dream.

“Before leaving for the airport, her last words to me were: `I’ll be back from the flight by three in the afternoon. Keep the evening free; let’s take the girls out for food’.”

She then promised her daughters that she would take them out in the evening to have burgers.

Youngest of the daughters, Zoha, had no idea as to what had happened to her mother. “Mama is in office. I am waiting for her to get back. She will take us out when she comes back,” she told this reporter, asking her elder sisters to stop crying.

“Go take a bath and get ready,” little Zoha told them. —Asif Shehzad