A family of five smiled for a selfie before taking off for a new life in the UK. But their joy turned to horror within minutes as their Air India flight crashed with 242 passengers and crew on board in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Their final family selfie now stands as a haunting memento.
“A final moment captured, never knowing it would be their last,” one netizen commented online.
Highlights
- A family of five took a heartbreaking selfie moments before the devastating plane crash.
- They were on their way to London to start a new life together, with big hopes and dreams.
- Their Air India flight crashed into a neighborhood, ending the lives of all the passengers, except one.
- “When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared,” said the lone survivor.
A heartbreaking selfie taken by a family of five moments before takeoff now serves as a tragic final memory
Image credits: Elke Scholiers/Getty Images
The doomed Flight AI171—on its way to London—was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members while taxiing along the runway at Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday, June 12.
Right before they were up in the air, Dr. Komi Vyas and her husband Dr. Prateek Joshi smiled for a selfie with their daughter Miraya, 8, and their twin sons Pradyut and Nakul, 5.
Image credits: Sudhirntv
Dr. Komi had just resigned as a pathologist from a hospital in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
She and her radiologist husband, who had been married for about a decade, were ready to begin a new chapter together in London.
Dr. Prateek had been working in the UK for years and had reunited with his family just days prior to the tragedy.
Doctor Komi Vyas and her three young children were relocating to the UK to live with her husband when the disaster struck
Image credits: KishorJoshi02
With their visas finally ready, the husband was prepared to take his wife and kids with him to London and start their new lives.
“They were so happy,” their cousin Nayan Joshi said. “They’d been preparing for this move for a month.”
Loved ones dropped the family off at the Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday, not knowing they were bidding them a final farewell.
Image credits: Sudhirntv
“They left for Ahmedabad yesterday to take the flight to London. Prateek had come here just two days ago to take his wife and children with him. Several other members of both families went to see them off,” Nayan said.
In their final family selfie, the couple was captured sitting together, while their three kids beamed away in the same row before becoming victims of one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years.
The family beamed from the same row before becoming victims of one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years
Image credits: Prateek Joshi
The flight took off from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in the afternoon hours of Thursday, with 169 Indian passengers, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
Almost immediately after takeoff, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar gave a Mayday call.
The two highly experienced pilots had more than 9,000 flying hours combined.
Image credits: Raju Shinde/Hindustan Times
The aircraft only reached a height of about 625 ft. before it descended into a residential neighborhood and exploded into a fireball around 33 seconds after takeoff.
After crashing into a medical college dormitory for students, harrowing images captured the plane’s tail protruding from a building.
Individuals on the ground also tragically lost their lives, taking the victim count to more than 260.
“They all went to paradise all together,” one netizen commented online
All the passengers aboard the London-bound flight lost their lives, except for one Indian-origin British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
The 40-year-old called London his home for about two decades and was returning to his wife and child after visiting family in India.
He was seated in 11A, while his brother was seated in a different row on the same ill-fated flight.
Image credits: Deepak Pundaleekappa Kaladagi
The lone survivor was captured walking away from the devastating crash site with visible injuries.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” he told the local news outlet, the Hindustan Times.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared,” said Vishwash Kumar Ramesh
Image credits: Stringer/Anadolu
“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,” he said from a hospital bed.
“Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,” he added.
Vishwash’s younger brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, spoke from Leicester in the UK and said his surviving brother had “no idea” how he lived to tell the tale.
“We were just shocked as soon as we heard it. I last spoke to him yesterday morning,” Nayan, 27, told The Guardian. “We’re devastated, just devastated. He said: ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane.’”
“Can’t imagine the terror of the parents upon realizing the truth that they’re about to crash,” read one comment online
