Jet crew member injured in Brussels attack returns home

Jet Airways crew member Nidhi Chaphekar, who was injured in the Brussels airport bombings in March this year and her picture became the face of the terror attack, returned to Mumbai on Friday morning.

Nidhi, 42, who has not yet recovered from the injuries suffered in the terrorist attack, arrived around 7.30 am on Friday on a Paris-Mumbai Jet airways flight and was driven to Breach Candy hospital from the airport.

Airline officials said Nidhi has low immunity and doctors have advised her to avoid contact with people.

On March 22, three bombs went off -- two at the Brussels airport and one at Mallbeek metro station -- leaving 35 people dead, including three suicide bombers.

Nidhi was on her way to board a Jet flight for Newark when the explosions took place. She suffered 15 per cent burns and fractured an ankle.

Her colleague, Amit Motwani, was also injured and is still recovering at a Brussels hospital.

Nidhi, who was treated at Grande Hospital de Chaleroi, about 40 kilometre from Brussels, was discharged Thursday afternoon and taken to Paris where she boarded the flight to Mumbai.

She spent about 25 days in medically induced coma at the Chaleroi hospital and underwent extensive skin grafting.

Nidhi, who is still wheelchair-bound, was accompanied by her husband Rupesh Chaphekar, and bother-in-law Nilesh Chaphekar, besides the airline’s support staff and its chief medical officer.

She has been with Jet Airways since August 1996.

Meanwhile, the Jet Airways, in a statement, said that Nidhi has made significant recovery from her injuries sustained during the blasts at Brussels airport.

She is in good spirits and is very happy to be back with her family, it said.

Nidhi will undergo treatment in Mumbai as part of the next phase of her recovery programme outlined by doctors, the statement further said.

Jet Airways continues to provide all the necessary support to Nidhi and her family during this time, it added.