Girls orphaned when father died in Air India crash after scattering wife's ashes
Pol Allingham
©Press Association
Two children were orphaned when their father was killed in the Air India plane crash after travelling to scatter his wife's ashes in her homeland, according to a fundraiser for the family.
Arjun Patoliya, 37, was killed 18 days after his wife Bharti had died from cancer, the GoFundMe page to support their daughters, aged four and eight, said.
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The Journal
2 hours ago
- The Journal
Families hold funerals for relatives who died in Air India plane crash
THE FUNERALS OF some of the people who died in the Air India plane crash on Thursday have taken place in India. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in Ahmedabad. 'My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?' said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts. 'How will they react when they open the gate? But we'll have to do it,' Leuva said. One victim's relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. Advertisement Around 20 to 30 mourners gathered at a crematorium in Ahmedabad today, chanting prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London. Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 32 identified as of today. 'This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,' Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital, said late Saturday. The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, he added, with one or two remaining in critical care. Girls orphaned by crash Indian authorities are yet to detail the cause of the crash and have ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners. Investigators after visiting Thursday's Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the recovered black box, or flight data recorder, would 'give an in-depth insight' into what went wrong. Just one person miraculously escaped the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. His brother was also on the flight. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. Related Reads Death toll from Air India plane crash rises to 279 Miracle of Seat 11A: How did a passenger survive the Air India crash? Black box recovered from Air India plane crash site Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had travelled to India to scatter his wife's ashes following her death weeks earlier. 'I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,' said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London's Harrow borough where some of the victims lived. 'We don't have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling,' she added. While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived only by arriving late at the airport. 'The airline staff had already closed the check-in,' said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan. 'At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn't have missed our flight,' she told the Press Trust of India news agency. © AFP 2025
The Irish Sun
6 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Just how DID the Air India passenger ‘survive the unsurvivable'? Aviation experts weigh on miracle Brit Vishwash Ramesh
WHEN Air India Flight AI171 crashed in Ahmedabad and blazed up into a huge fireball, many believed that no one would have survived. But after video emerged of 40-year-old Brit Vishwash Ramesh stumbling away from the crash site on his own two feet, puzzled experts rushed to theorise how he narrowly avoided death. 13 The Brit staggered away from the wreckage relatively unscathed 13 Vishwash Ramesh in hospital, visited by Indian PM Narendra Modi 13 It then crashed in a fireball at a doctor's hostel 13 Investigators are scrambling to figure out what went so wrong with the plane Many were also shocked to see the Crash analysts from around the world have now weighed in on how they think the miracle survivor managed to cheat certain death. Vishwash was on seat 11A when the The Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 "came to a standstill mid-air" according to sole survivor Vishwash, and then READ MORE WORLD NEWS Investigators are still combing over footage and evidence to uncover what exactly caused the crash. But experts are also trying to dissect Vishwash's story - and are attempting to theorise how he Vishwash himself told local media that he was able to push open the plane's fuselage by the emergency door and get out before the plane blew up. It is currently unclear whether the opening Vishwash "slipped out" of was the emergency door or a rupture in the aircraft's fuselage. Most read in The Sun But aerospace and aviation professor Graham Braithwaite speculated the lucky Brit may have actually been flung out of the wreckage. He said: "The aircraft was loaded with fuel and it crashed into a heavily populated area. 'I opened my eyes & slipped out'…Brit sole survivor of Air India crash details escape "I can only imagine that he was thrown from the wreckage, and that somehow as it crashed, what it hit managed to absorb some of the impact." He added: "Looking at the scene, I would imagine that the disruption to the aircraft would have been huge. "If anybody could have got out, then they probably could have just gone out in a gap in the fuselage - you'd struggle to infer from this, therefore, that is the seat you must always sit in." The expert also said that surviving a crash like this was more a matter of being lucky about where a passenger is sat. Meanwhile, former senior crash investigator, Tony Cable, told the Guardian his theory on how the jet having its nose up at the moment it crashed may have helped Vishwash escape. He explained: 'The aircraft was pretty nose up when it hit the buildings. "It has presumably broken open in an area of the fuselage adjacent to this guy and fortuitously he has popped out without major injury." 13 The seating plan of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner shows the seat 11A near the emergency exit - while his brother was sat in 11J Credit: The seating plan of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner shows the seat 11A near the emergency exit - while his brother was sat in 11J 13 Vishwash Kumar Ramesh - sitting in 11A - was the sole survivor of the jet crash 13 He also explained that the impact of the crash could have broken a part of the plane, or the emergency door itself, giving the Brit a chance to escape death. Another expert weighed in on the importance of Vishwash's seat selection of 11A. Engineering safety professor John McDermid said that his choice of seat may have given the lucky Brit more time to escape. Seat 11A is positioned on the left side of the aircraft's body, right next to an emergency door, and has extra leg room because it is the first row of economy seats behind business class. And this specific location on board the plane may have meant that Vishwash was given seconds more to get out of the burning jet. Other passengers sat in regular seats may have been crushed on impact due to their proximity to the seats in front of them, according to the expert. Professor McDermid also said: " My suspicion is that because of the nature of the impact, he was in a strong part of the airplane at the front edge of the wing. "There is not just the fuselage, but the extra structure of the wing to protect from the compression of the fuselage." He added, highlighting the importance of seat 11A: 'It's possible that the impact loosened the door and he could kick it out and get out. 'The external door was only just in front of him so he didn't have far to go.' Another analyst doubled down on the seat's crucial location within the jet. Fire evacuation expert professor Ed Galea said: "The fact that anyone has survived is miraculous." But he put Vishwash's fortune down the seats proximity to the emergency exit. 13 Vishwash's boarding pass shows that he sat in seat 11A Credit: Getty 13 Government officials beneath the tail of the plane, which remains wedged in a building 13 No more survivors are expected to be found in the wreckage In his own research of plane crashes, he found that people sitting within five rows of a serviceable exit have a better chance of surviving than those sat more than five rows away from one. The expert added that when he travels, he always tries to reserve a seat within five rows of an emergency exit to boost his odds of survival. Another theory for how Vishwash survived was also made after shocking footage of the plane's final moments showed what may have been the Unbelievable footage showed the moment the Dreamliner went down - with a mysterious object seen spinning away seconds before the plane blew up into a fireball. The theories about how Vishwash survived also come as a veteran pilot revealed what he believes caused the devastating crash itself YouTuber and commercial airline pilot Captain Steve Chen gave his chilling theory after watching the Some 279 people have been killed following the horror smash in Ahmedabad, India. Investigations are still ongoing into the cause of the crash - with at least one of the black boxes recovered from the wreck. 13 People stand near debris at the site of the crash Credit: Getty 13 The plane was seen wedged in a building Credit: Reuters 13 Both pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder and believed to be among the dead. Mr Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of experience, while his colleague Mr Kunder had 1,100 hours. Vishwash could also provide key clues as to what happened to the plane. He said cabin lights began flickering before the jet sank through the air and crashed. Recalling the moments before tragedy, Vishwash, from Leicester, said: "When the flight took off, within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air. "Suddenly, the lights started flickering - green and white. "The aircraft wasn't gaining altitude and was just gliding before it suddenly slammed into a building and exploded." Vishwash's flickering lights revelation comes after a passenger, who took the plane the day before the crash, claimed electrical parts such as the back-of-seat screens weren't working. Aviation experts have speculated that the reports of dodgy electrics could be a sign of a power failure, possibly explaining the crash. Air India is keeping an open mind as to what went wrong and caused the deaths of 52 Brits. Theories being considered include issues with the engine thrust, flaps and landing gear - as well as a bird strike and a pilot error. India's dark aviation history A LONDON-BOUND Air India flight crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday. The following are details of some other airline accidents in India in recent decades: AUGUST 2020 At least 18 people died and 16 were severely injured when an Air India Express Boeing 737 plane skidded off the runway in the southern city of Kozhikode during heavy rain, plunged into a valley and crashed nose-first into the ground. MAY 2010 An Air India Boeing 737 flight from Dubai overshot the runway at the airport in the southern city of Mangaluru and crashed into a ravine, killing 158 people on board. JULY 2000 More than 50 people were killed when a state-owned Alliance Air flight between Kolkata and the capital, New Delhi, crashed in a residential area of the eastern city of Patna.
Irish Examiner
7 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Authorities start handing over remains of Air India crash victims to relatives
Authorities have started handing over remains of the victims of one of India's worst aviation disasters after identifying some through DNA tests, days after the Air India flight crashed and killed at least 270 people in Gujarat state, officials said. The Gatwick-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after take-off on Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived. Relatives grieve as they attend the funeral of Shubh Modi and his sister Shagun Modi, both victims of the Air India plane crash, at a crematorium in Ahmedabad, India (Rafiq Maqbool/AP) Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims provided DNA samples at hospital. Most of the bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognisable. Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed. He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives. The victims' families waited outside the hospital mortuary as authorities worked to complete formalities and transfer the bodies in coffins into ambulances. Most of them have expressed frustration at the slow pace of the identification process. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process. Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash. Investigators come out after visiting the Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad, India (Ajit Solanki/AP) The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Saturday. Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, minister of civil aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday's crash. Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Mr Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with 'immediate urgency'. Investigators on Friday recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, from a rooftop near the crash site. The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.
