Father-of-two Arjun Patolia had travelled to India to carrying out his dying wife’s final wish but his two young daughters have been left orphaned after he died in yesterday’s tragic air disaster
A father of two young girls who travelled to see out his wife’s final wish died in the horror Air India crash that killed 241 passengers on board. Arjun Patolia had been visiting the north Indian city of Amreli to scatter his late wife’s ashes in a local river.
Bharatiben had died just seven days earlier in London but during her final days she asked her husband to return her remains to India. The dad-of-two was due to return back to London yesterday but it was later revealed he had been one of the passengers on the doomed flight from Ahmadabad Airport, which was bound for Gatwick Airport.
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The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad, just minutes after it took-off at around 1.38pm local time on Thursday. The plane plunged into a residential area and terrifying footage caught the moment it fireballed.
On his trip to India, Arjun had visited a sacred river in Hinduism, called the Narmada River. Many Hindu people have their ashes scattered in rivers to purify the soul and ensure spiritual liberation. The dad then carried out severla funeral rites with family in his village, around 150 miles from Ahmedabad.
Arjun had an eight and a four year old daughter who are living in London, according to local Indian media, while his mother lives in Surat, India.
Shortly after take-off, the crew issued a “mayday” distress call, indicating an emergency situation. However, no further communication was received from the aircraft after the initial alert. Flight tracking service Flightradar24 reported that it lost the signal from the aircraft just seconds after it became airborne.
Shocking eyewitness footage captured in the moments before the crash showing the aircraft – painted in Air India’s signature white and orange – descend with its nose tilted upward before disappearing beyond the horizon.
Seconds later, a loud explosion was heard and it was followed by a massive fireball and plumes of thick black smoke rising into the air. A British man is believed to be the only survivor of this horror crash.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, claimed he was sat in seat 11A on the flight bound for Gatwick and said he heard a loud noise around 30 seconds after the plane took off.
He told the Hindustan Times: “When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
His shocked family broke their silence and said they had “no idea” how the British national managed to survive but added that his brother Ajay was also on the flight. Vishwash’s other brother Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, said: “We were just shocked as soon as we heard it. I last spoke to him yesterday morning. We’re devastated, just devastated. He said I have no idea how I exited the plane.”