'I will bring them home': A son's determination after losing his parents in the Air India Crash
A man has promised to bring his parents home to Orpington after they died in an Air India Crash to London Gatwick.
Ashok Patel, 74, and Shobhana Patel, 71, have lived in Greater London since the 80s. Ashok was a financial advisor, while Shobahana a microbiologist.
The pair travelled to India for a religious trip known as a Yatra which helps people find peace when they eventually pass away.
Unfortunately, just days later, they were among 53 British nationals that died in a fatal plane crash in Ahmedabad, West India just minutes after take off.
It is still uncertain when the pair will be returned to London though the process to identify them was quick.
Their son, Miten, went to India and describes the process as a "miracle".
He added "it's a result of meticulous and efficient planning" which meant he had to put his grief to the side to focus on fulfilling his parents' wishes.
"I haven't come to terms with it. My main priority was the promise I made my parents to bring them home," he says.
He is one of dozens of British family members who have flown to Ahmedabad to identify and bring their loved ones back.
"It is not an easy process when there are so many people that have gone through this tragedy," he tells ITV News London.
Despite how difficult the last seven days have been, Miten praises his family and the wider community for all their kindness and support in the process.
It all began, when Miten received a phone call from his father's friend who was in India.
"I couldn't believe it," he says.
"I was with him on Father's Day, I held him...that's the first time in this whole ordeal I cried because I felt like I was actually hugging my dad."
Miten contacted insurance companies, collected dental records and DNA samples to take to India in order to support the identification process.
He says it was fate that his mother was identified just four hours after his father was, and added: "It felt like my mum was saying to my dad, stay where you are, you're not going alone, I'm coming with you."
In India, he was shown items that belonged to his parents that were found among the wreckage, from the label of his father's beloved Stafford shirt to his mother swan-pendant necklace that Miten's young daughter Amira will now inherit.
"My mum used to say one day you will have that. It just feels like she's left that necklace for her," he says.
Once his parents are back in the UK, Miten aims to hold a funeral service for them both together.
"They have made it this far together so I would like to send them off together," he says.
While Miten's dad Ashok was born in India and his family have ethnic roots to the country, India was an 'unknown country' for Miten who grew up in the UK.
"I'm just glad I was able to fulfil my promise that I made to my parents and my family that I will make sure that they come home because the UK is their home."
"They've been here for over 40 years."
Miten says his parents finally being cremated will start off a more personal mourning process for him that he has been delaying.
"Once I get them home and we give them a good send off then I'll grieve in my own time, but at the moment I've just got to stay strong for them," he says.
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ITV News
5 hours ago
- ITV News
'I will bring them home': A son's determination after losing his parents in the Air India Crash
A man has promised to bring his parents home to Orpington after they died in an Air India Crash to London Gatwick. Ashok Patel, 74, and Shobhana Patel, 71, have lived in Greater London since the 80s. Ashok was a financial advisor, while Shobahana a microbiologist. The pair travelled to India for a religious trip known as a Yatra which helps people find peace when they eventually pass away. Unfortunately, just days later, they were among 53 British nationals that died in a fatal plane crash in Ahmedabad, West India just minutes after take off. It is still uncertain when the pair will be returned to London though the process to identify them was quick. Their son, Miten, went to India and describes the process as a "miracle". He added "it's a result of meticulous and efficient planning" which meant he had to put his grief to the side to focus on fulfilling his parents' wishes. "I haven't come to terms with it. My main priority was the promise I made my parents to bring them home," he says. He is one of dozens of British family members who have flown to Ahmedabad to identify and bring their loved ones back. "It is not an easy process when there are so many people that have gone through this tragedy," he tells ITV News London. Despite how difficult the last seven days have been, Miten praises his family and the wider community for all their kindness and support in the process. It all began, when Miten received a phone call from his father's friend who was in India. "I couldn't believe it," he says. "I was with him on Father's Day, I held the first time in this whole ordeal I cried because I felt like I was actually hugging my dad." Miten contacted insurance companies, collected dental records and DNA samples to take to India in order to support the identification process. He says it was fate that his mother was identified just four hours after his father was, and added: "It felt like my mum was saying to my dad, stay where you are, you're not going alone, I'm coming with you." In India, he was shown items that belonged to his parents that were found among the wreckage, from the label of his father's beloved Stafford shirt to his mother swan-pendant necklace that Miten's young daughter Amira will now inherit. "My mum used to say one day you will have that. It just feels like she's left that necklace for her," he says. Once his parents are back in the UK, Miten aims to hold a funeral service for them both together. "They have made it this far together so I would like to send them off together," he says. While Miten's dad Ashok was born in India and his family have ethnic roots to the country, India was an 'unknown country' for Miten who grew up in the UK. "I'm just glad I was able to fulfil my promise that I made to my parents and my family that I will make sure that they come home because the UK is their home." "They've been here for over 40 years." Miten says his parents finally being cremated will start off a more personal mourning process for him that he has been delaying. "Once I get them home and we give them a good send off then I'll grieve in my own time, but at the moment I've just got to stay strong for them," he says.
Sky News
6 hours ago
- Sky News
How are investigators looking into the Air India crash - and how long could they take?
The devastating Air India plane crash which killed 229 passengers and 12 crew has been labelled a "mystery" by experts. The Gatwick-bound flight, which was carrying 53 Britons, came down just after take-off from Ahmedabad airport in western India on Thursday 12 June, leaving only one survivor and also killing people on the ground. CCTV footage was captured of the crash, but experts say it has led to more questions than answers. An ongoing investigation will be reviewing the footage and other key evidence left in the crash's wake. But what are investigators looking at - and how long could it take? What is unusual about the crash? Air India Flight 171 took off from Ahmedabad Airport at 1.38pm local time on Thursday, and was only in the air for around half a minute. CCTV footage shows the plane struggling to gain altitude and it quickly begins to descend towards buildings, with its wheels still out and its nose raised. 0:56 It crashed into a densely populated neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, killing at least 29 other people on the ground. According to flight-tracking website Flightradar, the aircraft reached a height of just 625ft before crashing. The plane was a 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner, of which there are currently around 1,200 in operation worldwide. While other Boeing planes like the 787 Max have been plagued by high-profile safety incidents, this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of the Dreamliner model's operation, according to experts. 1:16 Several experts have told Sky News that they spotted potential anomalies in the footage. One of them was the landing gear, which appears to remain open throughout the clip. Former British Airways pilot Alastair Rosenschein and Paul Edwards, an aviation security analyst and fellow at the Royal Aeronautical Society, have told Sky News the landing gear should have been up and that this remains a mystery. 6:51 Mr Rosenschein is also among the experts who have called into question the aircraft's flaps, which need to be set correctly as they extend the shape of each wing and create vital extra lift at lower speeds to enable the plane to take-off and climb effectively. Some have also suggested a bird strike could be linked to the crash, but experts have pointed out that the aircraft has two engines and is designed to be able to fly on one, making this unlikely. What are investigators looking at? The investigation is being carried out by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing. Anti-terror squads have also been part of the investigation teams, according to Reuters. Aurobindo Handa, former director general of AAIB, told Sky News that any theories about what may have caused the incident are at this point purely speculative. He says the most crucial thing for investigators was to retrieve the black boxes - or Digital Flight Data Recorders (DFDR) - from the crash site. Black boxes have two components - the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder - and provide crucial insights for crash investigators. They include altitude, airspeed, the status of controls and pilot conversations which help determine probable causes of crashes. They also store essential information about the configuration of the aircraft, including the flaps and landing gear. Mr Handa said that when there is a crash, the retrieval of the black boxes becomes the "primary focus" straight after first responders have carried out their rescue mission. It took investigators more than a day to recover the black boxes, longer than it took in many of the investigations Mr Handa oversaw, and he said this would have been because the aircraft was badly charred from fire. Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported that they were due to be sent to the US so the data could be extracted, as they had suffered fire damage and could not be analysed in India. The government said in a statement that the AAIB would decide where the recorders would be examined after making a "due assessment" of all technical, safety and security considerations. Mr Handa said analysing the boxes' raw data will take some time. "There are hundreds of components and instruments giving feedback to the DFDRs," he explained. "All the control services, all the engine parameters - everything goes into this." Investigators are also looking at the plane's remnants from the crash site, which they compare with the flight data when coming to conclusions. But Mr Handa said the investigators will likely be particularly reliant on the black box data in this instance because so much of the plane will be unrecoverable due to the fires. They will also be scanning CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash, according to Amit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert. Reuters has reported that investigators are assessing why the landing gear was open, citing a source "with direct knowledge", and that they are also looking at any possible operational issues with flaps. A possible bird strike is not a focus of the investigation, Reuters has reported. How long could the investigation take? Investigators across the world follow a standard UN-prescribed Manual of Accident Investigation, also called DOC 9756, which outlines detailed procedures to arrive at the most probable cause of a crash. In the case of a high-profile investigation of a major accident, countries are encouraged by the manual to publish a preliminary report within 30 days of the incident, but this is not mandatory. The guidance says the state should aim to release its final report "in the shortest possible time and, if possible, within twelve months of the date of the occurrence". It adds that if this is not possible, the state should release an interim statement on each anniversary of the incident detailing the progress of the investigation and any safety issues raised. Mr Handa told Sky News the findings will likely not be published anytime soon, even if the investigators believe they have found the probable cause of the crash early on, because they must examine and analyse every possibility and every piece of data available to them. He added that it is not just a case of finding the cause of the crash, but also uncovering the chain of events that led to that failure.
Metro
11 hours ago
- Metro
I can be myself in the UK - but now I can't go home
'I can now tell you that you are our first ever Miss Trans Global Uganda finalist – congratulations!' As soon as I heard this news in 2022 via Zoom, I screamed with delight. I had made it to the top seven of the global pageant and I couldn't be more proud. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!' I shouted with joy and thanks. As a child, I loved everything about beauty and fashion, but I could never fully express this because I'm a transgender woman from Uganda. Although being trans is not explicitly banned in the country, people like me are essentially in legal limbo and discrimination is widespread. As a result, I felt like my dreams to explore creative arts were suffocated and I was forced to assimilate. I went to a Catholic school, which had a strict dress code. On top of that, I suffered through non-inclusive sex education, anti-LGBTQ+ religious sermons in church, and a derogatory media landscape. I decided I needed to prioritise a roof over my head before anything else. That meant that I sacrificed expressing or exploring my gender identity publicly. In order to find a sense of LGBTQ+ community, I created a fake profile on social media and joined an anonymous private group of similar people who were brave enough to express themselves online. Gradually, we started meeting each other secretly, despite living in the closet. With thousands of members from all over the world, our vibrant LGBTQ+ WhatsApp channel is a hub for all the latest news and important issues that face the LGBTQ+ community. Simply click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! Don't forget to turn on notifications! I couldn't really cross-dress in public with my new friends because I was scared of being outed, but I also didn't fit into the straight world either. So I felt stuck and unsafe, which impacted my emotional wellbeing. I devoted my time and energy into graduating. After that, I applied for a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, which is a fully-funded scholarship from the British Government. Two months later, I was delighted to find out that my application was successful, so I moved to the UK in 2021 to study a masters at the University of Bath. Life after I came to the UK was liberating. Compared to Uganda, British cities embrace diversity from all walks of life. I watched TV shows that included trans people like Pose on BBC iPlayer. I also revamped my skincare routine and changed my wardrobe from a masculine to feminine aesthetic. I had the gender marker on legal documents changed and explored the nightlife of LGBTQ+ bars across the UK with a community of people just like me. Amanda was part of Hannah and Jake Graf's 'Trans is Human' campaign, which launched around Trans Day of Visibility (March 31) this year. For more information, visit their Instagram page here. The campaign is supported by Pride Wide, a charity featuring exclusive, investigative, fact-checked LGBTQ+ storytelling. Then in June 2022, I attended my first Pride parade in London and I was completely blown away by everyone proudly celebrating their identities. I was also pleasantly surprised by the support from the state in having police protection, endorsement from the mayor, and various companies marching in comradeship. None of these things would be possible in my home country. It was around this time that I stumbled across a Facebook post about a pageant called Miss Trans Global and was immediately interested in applying. Now that I was in the UK, I finally felt safe enough to be visible and express my true self. I had to send an audition tape talking about myself and why I wanted to compete in the pageant. 'I want to challenge stereotypes about femininity,' I said in the video, 'and I want to represent my country, Uganda.' I also had an interview with a panel of judges. In the lead up to the event, I made sure to learn how to walk confidently, practice public speaking, apply makeup, and show polished etiquette. Refugee Week is the world's largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking safety. Each year, IMIX – a charity that helps change the way people think and talk about migration – supports Refugee Week Ambassadors. These are people, like Amanda, who came to the UK to rebuild their lives and who now play an important part in our communities. IMIX is proud to work with Metro as a trusted partner in highlighting these voices and shining a light on the many ways refugees help make the UK a better place for everyone. You can read Agnès' story below I followed every rule as an asylum seeker – I was still detained The pageant was intense from the very start – even though it all took place online due to Covid-19 restrictions. For the evening ball gown category, I walked in an elegant rose pink lace long prom dress as the crowds cheered via live streaming platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Throughout it all, I was nervous but also excited, since I was the first to represent Uganda. In the end, I won 'Third Princess Global' and 'Inspirational Queen of the Year', which I was thrilled with. The whole event was so special to me because it was an opportunity to celebrate our unique traits of beauty and gender expression in a world that forces us to live in fear or shame about our bodies. Personally, participating in a beauty pageant helped me find my feminine charm and confidence – something I've taken with me ever since. This newfound confidence helped me be proactive at university and I got elected as the campaign officer for the LGBTQ+ students club in 2022. I also started my medical transition that year, which is exciting, although comes with its own challenges. But being so open about my identity has had its downsides, leading me to getting outed in my home country. My family and friends back at home found out I was transgender through social media, and were initially furious. Some cut ties. Later, a few gradually became more accepting and looked to reconcile. But most people I knew still remain negative about my identity. As a result, it's no longer safe for me to return to Uganda. So I had to apply for asylum and was granted the right to remain in the UK in 2023. Besides that, life for me has been joyful as I have grown more in my career – working in the charity sector where I have co-founded a charity organisation called Minority Inclusion Foundation (which supports LGBTQ+ refugees) and even modelled in magazines, too. More Trending I am also an ambassador for Refugee Week UK 2025, which is the largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees worldwide. From competing as Miss Trans Global Uganda, I learnt to conquer my fears about myself. The pageant changed my life by pushing me out of my comfort zone to a place of growth. It helped me change my geographical location, physical appearance, career and community, but most importantly the relationship I had with myself. This article was originally published April 6, 2025 Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: I went to the world's wettest Pride parade where everyone gets soaked MORE: Stephen Fry's JK Rowling criticism is welcome – but I'm still disappointed MORE: 'I was the first person to survive rabies without a vaccination' Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.
