17 hours ago
Air India crash: Heartbroken relative says Gloucester couple were 'incredibly generous'
A relative of a Gloucester family aboard the crashed Air India plane has paid tribute to them, describing the "devastation" and "heartbreak" caused by their death.
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".
