Flight attendant in haunting Brussels image placed in coma
BRUSSELS -- A Jet Airways manager says a flight attendant injured in the Brussels attacks is undergoing treatment for burns and has been placed in a medically induced coma.
Bernard Guisset, a Jet Airways manager in Brussels, said Nidhi Chaphekar has burns over 15 percent of her body and has a fractured foot, but is out of danger.
The image of Chaphekar taken right after the blast was one of the most searing photographs taken Tuesday. It showed the 40-year-old mother of two from Mumbai, her bright yellow uniform ripped across her chest. Her hair was caked with soot, and blood streaked down her face.
Meanwhile, Amit Motwani, a Jet Airways flight purser who was also injured in the airport blast, was being treated for injuries to his eye and ear.
The woman's family in India saw the photo after Tuesday's blasts and identified her.
"We were searching through the Internet to try and get details of the blasts when we saw the pics," her brother-in-law Nilesh Chaphekar told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. "The first reaction was 'she's alive. By God's grace she is alive.'"
Chaphekar, who has worked for Mumbai-based Jet Airways for two decades, sat with one leg stretched across airport seating while the other dangled over the floor. A bloodied right foot was raised just enough so it wasn't hitting shards of broken glass scattered across the floor.
But it was the look of shock and numbness on her face that captured the horror of the attacks, leading many around the world to share the photo on social media sites with the #PrayForNidhi hashtag.
Her family, including her husband, 11-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, were trying to get to Brussels to be with her. But Brussels' airport remains closed.
"We've got visas now, but we are still not sure exactly what route we should take to reach her as soon as possible," Nilesh Chaphekar said. "We are trying to figure out the nearest airport we can fly into."