March 16, 2019, is a day Jet Airways’ Captain Amit Rai (name changed) isn’t going to forget. That morning, he received a message posted by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) on a WhatsApp group seeking financial help for his son who was being treated for aplastic anemia, a condition in which the human body stops producing enough new blood cells.
“Request has been made to HR (to) release my three months’ pending salary. It is still pending. The suggested treatment is bone marrow transplant which (will) cost over Rs 25 lakh. I am left with no choice (but) to make an appeal to all my colleagues to help in this dire hour,” read the WhatsApp from the AME, who had exhausted his entitlement for hospitalisation expenses. But even as the cash-strapped management and pilots scrambled to arrange funds, the young boy passed away.
