Man persumed dead in a plane crash returns to his family after 45 years

Sajid Thungal is now 70, thought dead in a plane crash stuns his family by turning up alive after 45 years. He allowed his family to believe he had been killed in the plane crash in India in 1976.

Thungal left his hometown of Shasthamkotta in India in October 1976 to support his family by working in the Persian Gulf. The disaster struck when one of the engines on his Indian Airlines flight from Bombay to Madras caught fire, killing 95 people on board. Sajid’s parents, four sisters and three brothers believed he was among the dead but in reality

Thungal travelled to Abu Dhabi where he got a job promoting Indian culture overseas and organising screenings of Malayalam movies. He however, returned to India in 1982 moving to Mumbai to set up a business. After depending on several jobs to keep himself and his business afloat, he was afraid to see his family over the fear of being seen as a failure.

Sajid’s dad died in 2012, but his mother Fatima Bibi now 95, his wife Jamila and brothers Aziz and Mohammad Kunju are all alive and well, and were stunned to find out their long-lost loved one was living in Dubai.