A British family with a four-year-old daughter have been named as the latest victims of the Air India plane crash this morning. Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their four-year-old daughter Sara died in the crash, Gloucester Muslim Community said in a post on Facebook.
Flight AI171 was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport from Ahmedabad, carrying 242 people, 53 of whom were Bris, but crashed less than a minute after take-off, smashing into a building. So far, there has only been one survivor recorded, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, who reportedly jumped from the plane before impact, India Today said.
The young family was tragically killed in a crash, which erupted into a huge kerosene-fueled fireball with plumes of black smoke filling the sky. The Gloucester Muslim Community said: “During this moment of overwhelming sorrow, our hearts go out to all those left behind.
“No words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss, but we pray that the family may find solace in the tremendous outpouring of compassion and solidarity from communities across the world. May their cherished memories provide comfort, and may they rest in eternal peace.”
A British couple who run a spiritual wellness centre in London are also believed to have been on board the tragic Air India crash. Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek spoke of their “magical experience” in a gut-wrenching video posted shortly before their flight.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had climbed roughly 400 feet before plummeting into a hostel building of the BJ Medical College and Hospital, just a few hundred yards from the end of western Indian city Ahmedabad Airport’s runway.
204 bodies had been recovered so far, Ahmedabad’s police chief GS Malik told the BBC, while 41 people were being treated for injuries. The death toll is expected to rise, Malik said, because the plane crashed into the hostel building, so local people are thought to have died.
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