Air India crash: Heartbroken relative says Gloucester couple were 'incredibly generous'
Akeel Nanabawa was on the flight with his wife, Hannaa Vorajee, and their four-year-old daughter, Sara.
Abdullah Samad, the imam at the Masjid E Umar mosque, is related to the couple by marriage and the head teacher of Sara's primary school in Gloucester.
Describing the family, he told ITV News West Country: "Akeel and Hannaa were incredibly generous people, with their wealth, with their time, their commitment to serve the community.
"I think it says a lot about them that nobody has anything bad to say about them, everybody wants to say something positive about them. It's a big loss to the community."
Flight AI171 had departed Ahmedabad in western India and was bound for Gatwick on Thursday 12 June.
There were 242 people on board when it took off at 1.38pm local time, crashing just minutes later.
Imam Abdullah explained that, initially, the couple's family believed they were on another flight when the news broke.
However, over the next few hours, it became clear they were involved in the crash.
He said: "I think it was the fact that they were so young, having a four-year-old child with them and imagining what they would have gone through in their final moments.
"And then it dawns on you that you're never going to see them again, in all likelihood you can't even make it for their funeral, there is no sense of closure."
Imam Abdullah had to break the news to Akeel Nanabawa's mother, describing it as "one of the hardest things" he had ever done.
He noted: "I've seen a lot of grown men, tough men, bawling their eyes out last night, people I've never seen cry before. It shows the devastation to the entire community."
He added: "They moved to Gloucester seven or eight years ago, and in that time, they have achieved more here than people who have been born and bred in Gloucester."
Imam Abdullah went on to describe some of the work the couple had carried out, from volunteering at the primary school to assisting with humanitarian aid fundraising for Palestine.
He said: "It's those things they did for people, no fuss, no attention seeking, no massive declarations, no big statuses, things they did behind the scenes."
Imam Abdullah believes some members of the couple's family are heading to India to seek closure, but have been told they will not be able to receive confirmation of their death immediately.
It has taken phone calls and liaising with their local MP to sort out travel, the family being reluctant to accept the flights offered by Air India so soon after the fatality.
Imam Abdullah concluded that despite the pain being "incredibly deep", the community could see "a silver lining".
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Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Daily Record
Japan Airlines plane crash pilot's 'harrowing' last words before 520 people died
"The pilots were talking to each other in a state of deep distress because they didn't know what was going on and what they could do." The single deadliest air crash happened 40 years ago in Japan. The most shocking of recent times is the London bound Air India plane crash shortly after take-off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on June 12 of this year, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. The largest number of deaths in an aviation incident was on March 27, 1977, when two 747s collided on a foggy runway on Tenerife North, formerly Los Rodeos Airport. 583 people were killed. In Scotland, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board on December 21, 1988. However, the crash in mountainous terrain north west of Tokyo - in Ueno, Gunma, Japan, exactly 40 years ago today remains the deadliest involving a single aircraft, reports the Mirror. Amid the remains of the Japan Airlines plane and the souls that perished on board, investigators recovered the black box containing the cockpit voice recording which captured the terror of the pilots. Aviation journalist David Learmount, who has investigated and reported on air incidents for almost five decades, recalls how reading the CVR transcript was so harrowing that he was reduced to tears. Speaking on the 40th anniversary of the crash, David, a consulting editor on Flightglobal magazine said: "I've lost count of the number of CVRS I've listened to and transcripts I've read from accidents - and the Japan Airlines 123 remains the only one that ever made me cry. "The transcript was so harrowing I could not listen to the CVR. "The pilots were talking to each other in a state of deep distress because they didn't know what was going on and what they could do. "It wasn't just fear. They wanted to save their airplane, to save their own lives and the lives of everybody on board, and they didn't know what to do. You've never heard that kind of distress." On the anniversary, we remember the lives lost on the doomed flight. What happened? On Monday August 12 1985 Tokyo's Haneda Airport was crowded with thousands of people trying to get home. It was the eve of Obon - a Japanese Buddhist custom when most of the country traditionally honour their ancestors, often returning to their place of birth for family reunions. At 6.12pm, Japan Airlines 123 took off heading to Osaka, 400 kilometres to the west. The flight was filled almost to capacity. 509 passengers and a crew of 15. The flight time was 52 minutes. The most senior pilot on board was Captain Masami Takahama, 49. Takahama was was one of the airlines' senior training captains, and was supporting the First Officer Yutaka Saski, 39, who was captaining the flight. Also on board was Hiroshi Fukuda, a veteran flight engineer. For the first few minutes after take off, all seemed to be fine. As the plane climbed, the air pressure difference between the air inside the cabin and the air outside the cabin grew greater and greater. Approximately 12 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft experienced a loud explosion. Oxygen masks dropped down in front of hysterical passengers. The cabin altitude alarm was blaring, alerting the pilots that the air inside the plane was now too thin to breathe. The piloting crew radioed an emergency to air traffic control. Captain Masami Takahama requested a turn back to Haneda- now 70 miles behind them. He was unaware that the bang that was heard in the cockpit was due to a hole at the rear of the plane and this wave of pressure had blasted off a huge section of the aircraft's tail, including the rudder, the auxiliary power unit, and several other critical control systems. The captain instructed his first officer to turn to the right to head back to Haneda but he started banking too steeply. But no matter what the first officer did, he couldn't turn the plane back to wings level. Horrified Hiroshi Fukuda, the flight engineer could now see that hydraulic pressure has dropped. The plane had a complete hydraulics failure and there was no checklist to deal with this nightmare scenario. Flight 123 began to swing from side to side like a falling leaf - a nauseating movement for passengers. Without hydraulic power, the pilots could no longer control the pitch of the aircraft. It began plunging up and down hundreds of metres at a time in a terrifying rollercoaster cycle. Passengers began scribbling farewell notes to loved ones, which were later found in the wreckage. Using the engine power, they were able to slow down the erratic moments and even turn the plane momentarily. "By increasing engine power on the left side, the plane would turn to the right. Increasing power on the right side, the airplane would turn to the left. So that helped. However, they still thought they could attempt to control the plane manually, which they couldn't,' said David. And their altitude pilots were now dulled by hypoxia - having been too distracted to put on their oxygen mask. In the cabin, passengers were running out of oxygen. Their best hope was a controlled crash landing at Haneda, but the plane needed to lose altitude. The flight engineer suggested they could lower the landing gear without hydraulic power. For the first time since leaving Tokyo, the plane had now dipped below 20,000 feet. A lower altitude now brought a new danger. Straight ahead of the plane loomed a towering mountain range. The aircraft began diving at more than 18,000 feet per minute, 10 times the normal rate of descent. "Raise nose, raise nose.... power' were the captain's last words as the ground proximity alarm buzzed around him before the CVR cut out on impact. The pilots fought a losing battle for almost 30 minutes before the plane hit the Mount Takamagahara area, close to Mount Fuji. The right wing tip and its outermost engine hit the mountain ridge and was ripped off. The plane spun onto its back and careened into the mountainside at hundreds of kilometres per hour, igniting into an enormous fireball. Four miracle survivors - including a 12-year-old girl whose parents and sister were killed in the crash - were all seated at the back of the plane, where impact forces were not as great as at the front, and sheer luck protected them from flying debris. The investigation into the crash concluded that a faulty repair on the aircraft seven years earlier had ultimately caused the fatal malfunction. During a landing in Osaka in 1978, the pilot had pitched the plane's nose too high and slammed the tail into the runway. The rear pressure bulkhead, a critical structural component in aircraft, specifically designed to maintain cabin pressure, was severely damaged. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Boeing engineers performed the botched repair - which led to a ever weakening structure. It wasn't a question of if it would fail, it was when. David said: "It was a patch-up job, not a repair. They took a shortcut trying to fix it and put the plane back in action.' Over time, repeated pressurisation while in the air put stress on the incorrectly repaired section. The cracks led to metal fatigue and ultimately, the separation of the aircraft's tail. By August 12, 1985, the plane had flown more than 12,000 times since the shoddy repair. But on that final fateful flight, the damaged bulkhead reached breaking point. The rapid decompression also ruptured hydraulic systems, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable, although the pilots tried desperately to prevent the inevitable. Boeing redesigned the tail of the 747, so that rapid pressure spikes in the tail plane would no longer cause the kind of structural failure which occurred on flight 123, and also redesigned the plane's hydraulic systems, so that the loss of the aircraft's tail would not result in the total depletion of all hydraulic systems. Japan Airlines also modified its maintenance procedures, putting in place stricter supervision of important repair work and making regular inspections more thorough. Although the crash was Boeing's fault, the airline bore the brunt of national fury. After the crash, Japan Airlines paid 780million yen ($7.6million) to the victims' families - not as compensation, but as 'condolence money'. The company decided against taking criminal action against Boeing. Japan Airlines president Yasumoto Takagi resigned from his post. The company's maintenance manager, Hiroo Tominaga, died by suicide. Susuma Tajima, the engineer who checked and cleared the 747SR for takeoff before its final flight, also took his own life after the crash. "Careless Boeing engineers were to blame, ' said David. 'But this was the company culture. The culture is set by the people at the top. It always does. It happens in every organisation. And they made such shortcuts and shoddiness permissible." In recent years, Boeing has been at the centre of several controversies regarding the safety of of its planes after two fatal crashes. And history appeared to eerily repeat itself after had a mid-flight blowout of a door plug, due to poor safety checks. It was a miracle no one was killed. The incident, which occurred shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, resulted in a gaping hole in the fuselage. The NTSB, investigating the incident and has pointed to systemic failures within Boeing. The company said they are working on strengthening safety and quality across their operations.
Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Japan Airlines plane crash kills 520 as pilot's 'harrowing' final words still sparks tears
The pilots had no idea their flight was doomed from the very beginning - resulting in the death of 520 people when a Boeing Jetliner slammed into a mountain near Tokyo 40 years ago today Every week it seems we hear about a new aviation accident. The most shocking of recent times is the London bound Air India plane crash shortly after take-off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. The largest number of deaths in an aviation incident was on March 27, 1977, when two 747s collided on a foggy runway on Tenerife North, formerly Los Rodeos Airport. 583 people were killed. The single deadliest air crash in aviation history, however, took place 40 years today when a Boeing 747 jetliner slammed into a mountainous terrain north west of Tokyo - in Ueno, Gunma, Japan. The 40th anniversary of this Boeing disaster comes after a passenger was injured when door blew off mid-flight on Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft Amid the remains of the Japan Airlines plane and the souls that perished on board, investigators recovered the black box containing the cockpit voice recording. Aviation journalist David Learmount, who has investigated and reported on air incidents for almost five decades, recalls how reading the CVR transcript was so harrowing that it left him in tears. Speaking to the Mirror, on the 40th anniversary of the crash, David, a consulting editor on Flightglobal magazine said: "I've lost count of the number of CVRS I've listened to and transcripts I've read from accidents - and the Japan Airlines 123 remains the only one that ever made me cry. "The transcript was so harrowing I could not listen to the CVR. "The pilots were talking to each other in a state of deep distress because they didn't know what was going on and what they could do. "It wasn't just fear. They wanted to save their airplane, to save their own lives and the lives of everybody on board, and they didn't know what to do. You've never heard that kind of distress. " What happened? On Monday August 12 1985 Tokyo's Haneda Airport was crowded with thousands trying to get home. It was the eve of Obon - a Japanese Buddhist custom when most of the country traditionally honour their ancestors, often returning to their place of birth for family reunions. At 6.12pm, Japan Airlines 123 took off heading to Osaka, 400 kilometres to the west. It was filled almost to capacity. 509 passengers and a crew of 15. The flight time was 52 minutes. The most senior pilot on board was Captain Masami Takahama, 49. Takahama was was one of the airlines' senior training captains. He was supporting the First Officer Yutaka Saski, 39, who was captaining the flight. Also on board was Hiroshi Fukuda, a veteran flight engineer. For the first few minutes after take off, all was fine. As the plane climbed, the air pressure difference between the air inside the cabin and the air outside the cabin grew greater and greater. Approximately 12 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft experienced a loud explosion. Oxygen masks dropped down in front of hysterical passengers. The cabin altitude alarm was blaring, alerting the pilots that the air inside the plane was now too thin to breathe. The piloting crew radioed an emergency to air traffic control. Captain Masami Takahama requested a turn back to Haneda- now 70 miles behind them. He was unaware that the bang that was heard in the cockpit was due to a hole at the rear of the plane and this wave of pressure had blasted off a huge section of the aircraft's tail, including the rudder, the auxiliary power unit, and several other critical control systems. The captain instructed his first officer to turn to the right to head back to Haneda but he started banking too steeply. But no matter what the first officer did, he couldn't turn the plane back to wings level. Horrified Hiroshi Fukuda, the flight engineer could now see that hydraulic pressure has dropped. The plane had a complete hydraulics failure and there was no checklist to deal with this nightmare scenario. Flight 123 began to swing from side to side like a falling leaf - a nauseating movement for passengers. Without hydraulic power, the pilots could no longer control the pitch of the aircraft. It began plunging up and down hundreds of metres at a time in a terrifying rollercoaster cycle. Passengers began scribbling farewell notes to loved ones, which were later found in the wreckage. Using the engine power, they were able to slow down the erratic moments and even turn the plane momentarily. "By increasing engine power on the left side, the plane would turn to the right. Increasing power on the right side, the airplane would turn to the left. So that helped. However, they still thought they could attempt to control the plane manually, which they couldn't,' said David. And their altitude pilots were now dulled by hypoxia - having been too distracted to put on their oxygen mask. In the cabin, passengers were running out of oxygen. Their best hope was a controlled crash landing at Haneda, but the plane needed to lose altitude. The flight engineer suggested they could lower the landing gear without hydraulic power. For the first time since leaving Tokyo, the plane had now dipped below 20,000 feet. A lower altitude now brought a new danger. Straight ahead of the plane loomed a towering mountain range. The aircraft began diving at more than 18,000 feet per minute, 10 times the normal rate of descent. "Raise nose, raise nose.... power' were the captain's last words as the ground proximity alarm buzzed around him before the CVR cut out on impact. The pilots fought a losing battle for almost 30 minutes before the plane hit the Mount Takamagahara area, close to Mount Fuji. The right wing tip and its outermost engine hit the mountain ridge and was ripped off. The plane spun onto its back and careened into the mountainside at hundreds of kilometres per hour, igniting into an enormous fireball. Four miracle survivors - including a 12-year-old girl whose parents and sister were killed in the crash - were all seated at the back of the plane, where impact forces were not as great as at the front, and sheer luck protected them from flying debris. The investigation into the crash concluded that a faulty repair on the aircraft seven years earlier had ultimately caused the fatal malfunction. During a landing in Osaka in 1978, the pilot had pitched the plane's nose too high and slammed the tail into the runway. The rear pressure bulkhead, a critical structural component in aircraft, specifically designed to maintain cabin pressure, was severely damaged. Boeing engineers performed the botched repair - which led to a ever weakening structure. It wasn't a question of if it would fail, it was when. David said: "It was a patch-up job, not a repair. They took a shortcut trying to fix it and put the plane back in action.' Over time, repeated pressurisation while in the air put stress on the incorrectly repaired section. The cracks led to metal fatigue and ultimately, the separation of the aircraft's tail. By August 12, 1985, the plane had flown more than 12,000 times since the shoddy repair. But on that final fateful flight, the damaged bulkhead reached breaking point. The rapid decompression also ruptured hydraulic systems, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable, although the pilots tried desperately to prevent the inevitable. Boeing redesigned the tail of the 747, so that rapid pressure spikes in the tail plane would no longer cause the kind of structural failure which occurred on flight 123, and also redesigned the plane's hydraulic systems, so that the loss of the aircraft's tail would not result in the total depletion of all hydraulic systems. Japan Airlines also modified its maintenance procedures, putting in place stricter supervision of important repair work and making regular inspections more thorough. Although the crash was Boeing's fault, the airline bore the brunt of national fury. After the crash, Japan Airlines paid 780million yen ($7.6million) to the victims' families - not as compensation, but as 'condolence money'. The company decided against taking criminal action against Boeing. Japan Airlines president Yasumoto Takagi resigned from his post. The company's maintenance manager, Hiroo Tominaga, died by suicide. Susuma Tajima, the engineer who checked and cleared the 747SR for takeoff before its final flight, also took his own life after the crash. "Careless Boeing engineers were to blame, ' said David. 'But this was the company culture. The culture is set by the people at the top. It always does. It happens in every organisation. And they made such shortcuts and shoddiness permissible." In recent years, Boeing has been at the centre of several controversies regarding the safety of of its planes after two fatal crashes. And history appeared to eerily repeat itself after Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 had a mid-flight blowout of a door plug, due to poor safety checks. It was a miracle no one was killed. The incident, which occurred shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, resulted in a gaping hole in the fuselage. The NTSB, investigating the incident and has pointed to systemic failures within Boeing stated they are working on strengthening safety and quality across their operations. no one For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@ visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
ITV News
5 days ago
- ITV News
'It's a crime to disturb them': Warning as 'severely' injured dolphins found around Cornish coast
Watch the full interview with Jenny Wright from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust An increasing number of injured dolphins have been found around the Cornish coast, prompting a warning from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The mammals have been found primarily with injured dorsal fins, likely to be the result of propellors from high-speed boats. A number of mammals have been found in a "severe" condition, their fins missing entirely. The trust is urging all water users to slow down and follow the marine and coastal code. Coastal partnership officer Jenny Wright spoke to ITV News West Country, warning that whales and dolphins are protected by law. Pod spotted by ferry a "stark reminder of the damage reckless boating can cause" Pictures from Mevagissey to Fowey Ferry Crew Jenny said: "Five common dolphins were seen off the Mevagissey and Fowey ferry, and there were some serious injuries to their dorsal fins. "A couple of them even had their dorsal fin missing entirely. That is obviously not a great thing for dolphins because they use those dorsal fins for balance, and to help them kind of swim through the water, so it will be impacting how they're living their lives and it will be adding stress to how they live their lives. "We can't say for sure how they're doing exactly. We do hope that they will be doing all right, but it can affect their survivability as well." "Be careful with boats and propellers" Jenny added: "We hope that the majority [of these injuries] are accidental and that people just maybe aren't aware of best practice and how they should be using their boats in the water. "I couldn't say for sure whether any of them are doing it recklessly and on purpose, but we do have lots of best practice, things that people can find out on the Cornwall Wildlife Trust website. "There, people can see how to use their boats respectfully when they're around wildlife as well." If you spot marine wildlife, you must: Slow down to a no-wake speed Stay at least 100m away What should you do if you find an injured dolphin? The Cornwall Wildlife Trust encourages people to report marine disturbance, specifically relating to mammals, to its 24-hour disturbance hotline, on 0345 201 2626. This number can also be used for reporting sightings and strandings of marine animals. The trust also has a marine and coastal code group that has lots of relevant contact details. The trust reminds people that it's a crime to disturb whales and dolphins, so anyone who sees anything happening at sea should contact Devon and Cornwall Police.
