Indian neurosurgeon, wife killed in Ohio plane crash

Columbus, Ohio: A leading New Jersey neurosurgeon and his wife, also a doctor, were killed today when their single-engine plane crashed into an Ohio cornfield and burst into flames shortly after takeoff, authorities said.
Viswanathan Rajaraman, the 54-year-old pilot, and Mary J. Sundaram, his 50-year-old wife and the only passenger, were attempting to take off from Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus when the incident happened just before 9 a.m., according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The couple was returning to Essex County Airport in Fairfield, which they flew out of on Friday afternoon, according to the aviation website Flight Aware. It was not clear why they were in Ohio for the weekend. The couple lived in Franklin Lakes.
Rajaraman was one of the top doctors in New Jersey, specializing in brain and spine cancer. His loss was mourned today by staff at Hackensack University Medical Center, where he was co-chief of neuro-oncology at the hospital’s cancer center.
The doctor, known to colleagues as Vishy, was also the head of neuro-oncology at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, according to the website for his practice, the North Jersey Brain and Spine Center. He was a clinical assistant professor at University Hospital in Newark, organized an annual neurooncology symposium and was involved in educating neurosurgeons in the developing world.
Sundaram was reportedly also a physician, but stopped practicing to raise the couple’s daughter, Kaavya Viswanathan, now 24. Reached at her family’s home last night, the young woman said she was too distraught to answer questions about her parents.
Originally from Madras, India, the family moved around the world. They spent some time in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States in the mid-1990s.
19/06/11 Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger/nj.com

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2011, Safety Jun 2011