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British couple feared to have been on Air India flight named and pictured

British couple feared to have been on Air India flight named and pictured

Metroa day ago

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A British couple are feared to be among the victims onboard the Air India flight AI171.
Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek and Jamie Meek, based in London, had been travelling in India before the crash and posted videos of their holiday on social media.
In a video posted on the official Wellness Foundry Instagram, the couple were seen waiting at an airport gate.
'We are at the airport, just boarding. Goodbye India,' Fiongal said.
Follow Metro's blog for live coverage and latest updates from the Air India crash
'10 hour flight back to England!' Jamie added. The couple laughed and joked around in the clip, uploaded shortly before the plane took off.
'My biggest takeaway is to not lose your patience with your partner. We're going back happily, happily, happily calm,' Fiongal said.
The pair both work at the Wellness Foundry, a spiritual centre to guide people on their journey.
They previously have appeared on This Morning to promote their brand.
A total of 53 British nationals were onboard the flight when it crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, western India.
It was due to land at London Gatwick this evening at around 6.30pm.
Pilots issued a mayday call moments before the crash.
Photos showed black smoke and a fire near the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's crash site near Ahmedabad's airport, the largest city in the region of Gujarat.
The cause of the crash won't be known until the black boxes, which hold key information and navigation data from the plane, are recovered.
The flight crashed in a crowded urban area, directly into accommodation for medical interns at the BJ Medical College. 50 to 60 of those interns are feared dead.
Air India also said 169 passengers are Indian nationals, 53 are British, one is Canadian, and seven are Portuguese.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the crash was 'devastating', while his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, said it was 'heartbreaking beyond words'. More Trending
The King is being updated on the incident, Buckingham Palace said.
It is the first crash involving a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 posted: 'We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight £AI171 from Ahmedabad to London. We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC (shortly before 9.09am BST), just seconds after take off.
'The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB.'
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Boeing plane safety: Should you be worried about flying on its aircraft?
MORE: Everything we know about the Ahmedabad to London Air India AI171 plane crash
MORE: Three teenage girls admit killing 75-year-old man in the street

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