Sad final video of UK couple Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek and Jamie Meek killed in Air India crash
A UK couple who died in the Air India crash shared a video just before boarding, celebrating the end of their holiday.
Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek and Jamie Meek were on board the .
More than 200 people died in the crash.
Greenlaw-Meek shared a video to his Instagram account, The Wellness Foundry, in a now-expired story from the airport.
The couple were in good spirits as they spoke to the camera.
'We are in the airport, just boarding,' he said. 'Goodbye, India.'
'10-hour flight back to England,' Meek said.
The pair then playfully discuss their biggest takeaway from the trip.
'What's your biggest takeaway, Jamie,' Greenlaw-Meek said.
'I've done this already,' Meek said.
'On a different thing,' Greenlaw-Meek said.
'Oh, right. What's my biggest takeaway? I don't know,' Meek responds.
'Yeah, fascinating. Great. Thanks,' Greenlaw-Meek said while laughing. 'Thanks for your contribution.'
'My biggest takeaway is don't lose your patience with your partner.'
'Yeah. You're already starting to,' Meek jokes.
'You already snapped at me while we were having chai at the airport.'
'I can see you've learned nothing.'
The pair then both laugh before Greenlaw-Meek says they're 'going back happily, happily, happily calm.'
The flight, AI171, was bound for London's Gatwick Airport, where it was due to land at 6.25pm local time (1.25pm ET).
A reception centre has been set up at the airport to provide information and support to relatives of victims.
One video captured the moment the aircraft, gaining altitude after just taking off, suddenly began to descend in midair, before crashing down in a huge plume of fire and smoke.
All flights out of Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport were suspended following the incident.
However, they have since resumed at a limited capacity, the airport said in a post on X — formerly known as Twitter.
In the final moments before the crash, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a seasoned pilot with over 8200 flight hours, issued a desperate Mayday call, according to The Sun.
'Mayday ... no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,' he radioed, as the aircraft struggled to stay airborne.
The plane crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel, also killing people inside.
At least three medical students died, Swapnil Bhalodia of the Indian Medical Association Medical Students Network in Gujarat said.
Between 50 and 60 medical students have been admitted to local hospitals, according to the Federation of All India Medical Association.
The statement said two or three students were in intensive care.
Air India said that 242 people were on board the plane, 169 of them Indian nationals and 53 British nationals.
There were also seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national, the airline added in a statement.
At least one passenger on board the flight survived, local police said.
According to Reuters, local police said the man had been in seat 11A.
The Hindustan Times named the survivor as a British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, and said he was receiving treatment.
What appears to be a copy of the flight manifest, shared by news agency IANS, lists Vishwash Kumar Ramesh as having been assigned seat 11A.
The Hindustan Times said it spoke to Ramesh in a local hospital, and quoted him as saying: 'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed.
'It all happened so quickly.'
A senior doctor at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where a majority of the dead and injured people were taken, said the death toll is likely to rise.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
3 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Former pilot's theory on how sole survivor of Air India crash escaped unscathed
The sole survivor of the Air India plane tragedy might have made it out of the plane wreckage relatively unscathed because he was seated by an emergency exit, a former Qantas pilot has claimed. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A, was the sole survivor of Thursday's Air India crash, which killed at least 290 people, including all the other passengers onboard the plane. The ill-fated flight was travelling from Ahmedabad in western India to London's Gatwick Airport, before it crashed just moments after take-off, in one of the worst aviation tragedies in the last decade. Indian authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. Ramesh, who is a British national, walked away remarkably unscathed from the doomed flight. Former Qantas pilot David Oliver appeared on Weekend Sunrise on Saturday, where he was questioned about the crash. 'Sitting above the wing, which contains a lot of fuel. It's remarkable he was able to walk away unscathed,' Oliver told hosts Chris Reason and Monique Wright. 'How it was that he managed to get out and people around him were unable to only compounds the luck that he had to come away almost uninjured.' It has been reported Ramesh was in row five, just behind business class, next to an emergency exit. On Friday, Ramesh told reporters he was able to push open the emergency exit door before the plane exploded. 'He was very, very lucky to be seated there,' Oliver said. 'He was lucky that he just had that fleeting seconds to escape the aircraft before it burst into that fireball.' Safety tips for passengers Oliver was questioned on how to increase your chances of survival on a plane. 'The obvious thing is to listen to the safety instructions,' he said. 'Always wear your seatbelt and have it reasonably, firmly tightened in-flight.' 'I think you've got to wear sensible clothing, bare skin going down an escape slide will give you burns. Maybe not as much as Lycra, so just be sensible about what you're wearing. 'No high-heeled shoes for the ladies. You don't want to puncture an escape slide if you're going out. 'But the important thing, listen to the safety instructions and always wear your seatbelt.' Air India's black box could provide answers Investigators have recovered equipment from this week's tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, which could shed light on the final moments on the flight deck. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were recovered from on top of the medical college hostel building where the plane crashed, could put to rest some of the speculation into the investigation that killed 241 people aboard the aircraft, according to aviation industry experts. The flight data recorder was recovered from the rear end of the plane. The question will be whether the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators, India, or another country will ingest the black boxes' data, according to Peter Goelz, former managing director of the NTSB and a CNN aviation analyst. 'It's quite dramatic,' Goelz told CNN. 'It looked to me like the plane was trying to land at the end. It was flaring, but we just won't know until we get the boxes back.' The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India is in possession of the recorders and other potential pieces of evidence for the investigation. The data recorders are expected to give some insight into what happened during the flight's final moments, when pilots were making critical decisions. Less than a minute after take-off, staff on the plane gave a mayday call to air traffic control, Indian civil aviation authorities said. The deadly crash has drawn even more global attention to air safety and spurred on public anxieties about flying. There have already been several aviation tragedies and incidents this year — including January's midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet — that have prompted calls to increase safety measures. - with CNN
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
British couple post lighthearted airport video moments before tragic Air India crash
A British couple shared a lighthearted video from Ahmedabad airport, joking about their holiday and appearing completely at ease just moments before boarding the Air India flight that would crash in a fireball. Jamie Meek, 45, and his husband Fiongal Greenlaw, 39, are believed to have been on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight bound for London Gatwick, which went down shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The couple were known for their wellness and spirituality business The Wellness Foundry based in South London and Ramsgate. They appeared to be in good spirits in their final recorded moments. 'Goodbye India,' Mr Greenlaw-Meek can be heard saying in the video, before turning to ask, 'What's your biggest take away Jamie?' 'I don't know,' Mr Meek replies, prompting a laugh from his husband who quips. 'Yeah fascinating, great, thanks for your contribution' The pair then joke about the challenges of travelling with a partner, ending the clip with Mr Greenlaw-Meek saying they were 'going back happily happily happily calm'. The couple had been sharing updates from their stay at The House of MG, a boutique hotel in Ahmedabad. A few days earlier, they had posted from the property reflecting on their trip. The couple had been together since 2019 and married in a series of ceremonies, including one in Las Vegas in 2022. Their work at The Wellness Foundry focused on psychic readings, tarot, reiki, and yoga. Earlier this year, Mr Greenlaw-Meek appeared on ITV's This Morning to discuss the meaning of people's auras, a moment the pair described on Instagram as their 'biggest gig so far'. The doomed flight was carrying at least 230 passengers along with 10 crew and two pilots. Images from the crash site show the aircraft's remains engulfed in flames near the airport, with thick black smoke pouring into the sky. Authorities are still working to confirm the final casualty count, with several passengers still unaccounted for. Indian authorities have confirmed over 200 fatalities, with the toll expected to rise. Sole survivor's miracle escape Forty-year-old Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British citizen and father of one, emerged from the rubble in an astonishing turn of events after his plane crashed into a fireball. His family have said he has 'no idea' how he survived. It's been reported Mr Ramesh's brother was also on the doomed flight. Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah has visited Mr Ramesh in hospital. Footage from the incident showed a man walking away from the crash site with blood on his face but seemingly superficial cuts and bruises as well as torn clothes. A boarding pass from the scene shows Mr Ramesh was in seat 11A of the Dreamliner. According to Air India's seat map this is in the first row on economy right next to an exit. 'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' Mr Ramesh is reported as saying by new outlet The New Indian Express. 'There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran'. 'There were pieces of the plane everywhere.'
West Australian
a day ago
- West Australian
Air India flight carrying 156 passengers makes emergency landing in Thailand after bomb threat
An Air India flight has made an emergency landing in Thailand after receiving a bomb threat. Flight AI 379, travelling from Thailand's Phuket to India's capital, New Delhi, was carrying 156 passengers when the threat was received on Friday, Phuket Airport said. Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 shows the plane circling over the Andaman Sea before landing back on the Thai island. Passengers were escorted from the plane in accordance with emergency protocols. The aircraft took off at 9.30am local time (12.30pm AEST), and was scheduled to land at 12.40pm local time (5pm AEST). The incident occurred less than 24 hours after an Air India flight crashed in India's western city of Ahmedabad. At least 290 people died when flight AI171 crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off. Among those killed were passengers on the flight, including minors, local residents, and people inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel when the plane crashed into it.
