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Dubai: The pilot and co-pilot of the fateful flydubai flight FZ981 both leave behind wives who are expecting children, Gulf News has learnt.
Captain Aristos Sokratous, recently married, was expecting a son with his wife and was just days away from starting a new life back home in Cyprus.
The wife of Alejandro Cruz Alava, the plane’s co-pilot, is expecting twins.
Flight FZ981 was expected to be one of 38-year-old Sokratous’ final flights with the airline, as he was planning to return to live in his native Cyprus with his wife as they awaited the birth of their son. The flydubai plane crashed early on Saturday morning on approach in Rostov-on-Don, killing 62 people, including seven crew.
A source close to Sokratous told Gulf News that he had handed his notice into flydubai and was about to take up a job with Ryanair on Monday.
Cruz Alava, 37, moved to Dubai in 2014 to work for flydubai, having flown for two airlines in Spain. He was a native of La Laguna, Tenerife — one of the idyllic Spanish-ruled Canary Islands off the coast of Africa — where he had flown for local airlines Binter and Naysa, La Provincia, a newspaper based in Las Palmas, told Gulf News.
Flight FZ981’s purser, Javier Alejandro Caro Curbelo, also known as Javi, who is said to be 29 or 30, is also from the Canary Islands, hailing from the city of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, the largest island in the archipelago.
His mother lives with him in Dubai. His sister, who works in the communications department of Binter, was on her way to the UAE at the time of writing.
Two Spanish crew members were from Canary Islands
“We have all gone mad,” said Sokratous’ friend, Andreas Christodoulou, to star.gr, a Greek website. “Aristos was the best child, I can not believe, it my phone does not stop ringing. We are all frozen by what happened.”
Sokratous, who trained at Oxford Aviation Academy, also worked for Helios Airways, which shut down after a Boeing 737 crashed en route from Larnaca to Athens, killing 121 people in August 2005.
Reports said this was the first time Sokratous was attempting to land at the airport in Rostov-on-Don.
Sokratous’ Facebook is testament to his love of motorcycles and racing, which he participated in until 2013, a source close to the pilot told Gulf News. He has race results listed on the European Drag Racing Academy, and had posted a video of biking at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in March 2013.
“Aristos was very dynamic, very lively, loved airplanes, machines, music, family and his friends,” added Christodoulou.
culled: Gulf news
