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".
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The Independent
2 days ago
- The Independent
The questions behind the Air India plane crash: What caused it and what happens next?
At least 275 people have been confirmed dead after an Air India flight bound for London crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday 12 June, in what is now the world's deadliest air disaster in a decade. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed from Ahmedabad airport in the western state of Gujarat at 1.39pm local time (8.09am BST). But after issuing a mayday call, it crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar just five minutes after taking off, India's civil aviation authority confirmed. Gujarat health officials said on 25 June that the final death toll was believed to be 275, including passengers, crew, and residents of the medical college hostel struck by the aircraft. Rescue crews and investigators took days to sift through the charred remains of the hostel and aircraft as large cranes were deployed to clear the debris. Images of the dining area of the medical college hostel showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, with debris, personal belongings and uneaten lunches scattered across the floor. Both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – the aircraft's black boxes – have now been recovered, officials confirmed. Work to extract the data from the recorders began on 24 June. The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who had been sitting in seat 11A, was identified by local police shortly after the crash. Here is everything we know about the crash so far: What happened prior to the Air India crash? After taking off from Ahmedabad airport at 1.39pm local time, the flight made a mayday call to air traffic control. But there was no response to subsequent calls made by controllers to the aircraft, Indian aviation authorities reported. According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, the signal from the plane was lost 'less than a minute after take-off'. Five minutes later, the plane crashed into a residential area in Meghani Nagar. The plane hit the rooftop of a hostel at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College, where students had been eating lunch in the dining hall. Videos showed the plane exploding into a fireball, with plumes of smoke pouring from the wreckage of the plane as firefighters tried to douse the charred remains of buildings impacted by the crash. Images from the site showed scorched walls, twisted metal, and lunch trays still on tables inside the debris-filled hostel dining room. It was unclear for hours how many people were killed, but officials said everyone on the plane died, except one, with dozens of victims from the medical college where the plane struck. Flight AI171 had been travelling to London Gatwick. But flight tracking data showed the plane was only briefly airborne before crashing close to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. What caused the crash? While it was still unclear what had caused the crash, poor maintenance, a bird strike, engine failure as well as the weather were initially being suggested as the reasons. Investigators have said they are examining possible issues with engine thrust, flap settings, and why the landing gear remained extended after take-off. A bird strike is not currently being considered a likely cause. The temperature in Ahmedabad went over 40C on Thursday and the thinner air would have made take-off more difficult, requiring higher flap settings and greater engine thrust, experts told the BBC and the New York Times. Improper flap extension during take-off could prevent a heavily loaded jet carrying passengers, long-haul fuel and operating in hot conditions from generating enough lift to get airborne. One of the strongest pieces of evidence being reviewed by investigators is a 59-second CCTV video that captured the moment the Air India flight took off and crashed in Ahmedabad. The footage, recorded from the far left of the runway near a barbed-wire fence, shows the plane gaining altitude briefly, flying flat for a few seconds, and then descending with its tail down. The descent began roughly 17 seconds after take-off. No fire is visible around the engines or elsewhere on the aircraft before impact, and the landing gear remains extended throughout the clip. It took just 33 seconds from wheels-up to the fiery crash, which killed nearly everyone on board. A former pilot told the BBC that footage of the airplane was not clear enough to determine if the flaps were correctly extended, but such an error would be 'highly unusual'. Moreover, he said, incorrect flap settings would have set off warnings. But Richard Curran, professor of sustainable aviation at City, University of London, said he had been told by multiple sources that the pilots issued a malfunction warning prior to the crash. Prof Curran, who previously spent 12 years as KLM's chair of engineering and maintenance, told The Independent: 'They actually registered a malfunction. So that means they had a technical problem', adding: 'So it was not a pilot error.' And he dismissed suggestions that multiple bird strikes could have caused dual engine failure, saying: 'These pilots are extremely well trained. They're trained for bird strike. It's one of the basic things that you go through in simulator training as a pilot.' Who was on board the plane? There were 230 passengers and 12 crew members onboard the aircraft. They included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens and one Canadian, Air India said. The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a line training captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 hours. There were 10 other crew members on board, civil aviation authorities said. Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognisable. Gujarat's former chief minister Vijay Rupani was also among the passengers. Rajkot city shut down markets on the Saturday after the crash to mourn his passing. The MP for Leicester East said she understood 'a handful of Leicester residents' were onboard the crashed flight. Shivani Raja told BBC News that her community, which has a high population of British-Gujaratis, were 'all really horrified and devastated waking up to such tragic news'. Who survived the crash? Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 people on the flight did not survive. A British national was the only person on board to miraculously escape with minor injuries. It was unclear exactly how many people were inside the building that the plane crashed into, but 34 bodies of non-passengers have been recovered. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was sat in seat 11A and walked away from the crash unaided with minor injuries. His family confirmed his survival, and the BBC said his name was confirmed in the flight manifest shared by the authorities. According to Hindustan Times, he said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.' Mr Ramesh, who has lived in the UK with his wife and child for 20 years, was in India for a few days to visit family, according to the Indian outlet. '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,' Hindustan Times reported him as saying. 'Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.' His brother, Ajay, was also on the flight. A student, Bhumi Chauhan, missed the ill-fated flight by minutes. The 28-year-old business student from Bristol had been visiting Gujarat with her husband and was booked on Air India flight AI171, which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday. Ms Chauhan says she had checked in online and reached Ahmedabad airport at 12:20pm local time, just 10 minutes after boarding was due to start. "I got late because I was stuck in traffic. I was upset (after being denied boarding) and reached the airport exit when I learnt the plane had crashed," she told Indian news channel NDTV, She had travelled 200km from Ankleshwar but was delayed by city traffic. Ms Chauhan said she was disappointed when she missed her flight, but minutes later everything changed. "I was getting ready to step out of the airport when I learnt about the crash. I began shivering. My legs started trembling. I felt numb for quite some time," she said. "My Ganpati ji (Hindu god) saved me," she added. Medical college hostel struck The aircraft crashed into a hostel building at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital. 'The plane was flying very low before it crashed,' eyewitness Haresh Shah told local news agency PTI. 'As it crashed into the building, the sound was like a blast and the plane and the building caught fire.' College dean Minakshi Parikh told reporters that four students living in the hostel had died and 19 were injured. 'Two third-year students are untraceable. A doctor's wife was also killed while two relatives of other doctors were injured. Three members of a doctor's family went missing after the incident,' she said. Dhaval Gameti, president of the resident doctors' association at the college, said 50-60 people had been injured. Footage from the scene showed aircraft debris in the hostel's dining area, with some tables left with uneaten food on the plates. What is the status of investigation? Investigators have recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, which was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site and likely will lead to clues about the cause of the accident. India 's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has succeeded in extracting the data from the flight data recorder. The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations. A team of four officials from the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), with expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and flight data, is now working in Ahmedabad alongside American and Indian counterparts. "Their role is to provide additional support and expertise to the safety investigation being led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau," the government said. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata – which owns Air India – said this was one of the 'darkest days' in the group's history and promised full transparency. 'We don't know right now [what caused the crash], but we will,' he said. What is known about the Boeing aircraft? The plane involved was a Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' delivered to Air India in 2014. This was the first fatal incident involving the 787. Soon after the Dreamliner entered service in 2011, concerns over fire risk from lithium batteries led to a temporary grounding. But there was no indication yet that the crash was connected to any technical issues onboard the aircraft. More than 1,000 Boeing 787 aircraft are in service with dozens of international airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, both of which have exemplary safety records. The aircraft is described by the US manufacturer as 'the bestselling passenger widebody of all time' with some 2,000 orders from 89 customers. The planes have carried more than one billion passengers on nearly five million flights. When was the last plane crash in India? The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved the airline's low-budget arm Air India Express. The Boeing-737 overshot a 'table-top' runway at the Kozhikode International Airport in southern India, skidded off and plunged into a valley, crashing nose-first into the ground. The crash killed at least 21 people. Where can I find out information about the victims? Air India has set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information. 'Air India is giving its full cooperation to the authorities investigating this incident,' the airline said. The airline has also set up assistance centres for friends and relatives at the airports in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Gatwick to 'provide support and take care of the needs of the families and loved ones'. The centres are also facilitating travel for family members to Ahmedabad, it said on X.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
India says efforts are on to reconstruct events that caused Air India crash
NEW DELHI, June 26 (Reuters) - Efforts are underway to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the Air India plane crash this month that killed 260 people, and identify contributing factors, India's civil aviation ministry said on Thursday. The London-bound Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 787 Dreamliner crashed moments after takeoff from India's Ahmedabad city on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and the rest on ground in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. The black boxes of the plane - the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) - were recovered in the days that followed, one from the rooftop of a building at the crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16. They were transported to national capital Delhi on Tuesday, where a team led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau began extracting their data, the ministry said in a statement. "The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, memory module was successfully accessed and its data analysis of CVR and FDR data is underway," it said. The CPM is the core part of a black box that houses and protects data recorded during a crash. India said last week that it was yet to decide where the black boxes would be analysed. The data retrieved from them could provide critical clues into the aircraft's performance and any conversations between the pilots preceding the crash. The air disaster has also brought renewed attention to violations of norms by airlines in the country. India's aviation regulator said on Tuesday that multiple instances of aircraft defects reappearing were found at the Mumbai and Delhi airports - two of India's busiest. Reuters has reported that warnings were given by India's aviation regulator to Air India, which has come under increased scrutiny since the crash, including for permitting some aircraft to fly despite emergency equipment checks being overdue. The airline has also been warned for violations related to pilot duty scheduling and oversight. Air India has said it had implemented the authority's directions and was committed to ensuring adherence to safety protocols. It also said it was accelerating verification of maintenance records and would complete the process in the coming days.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Investigators reach crucial stage in probe of one of worst aviation disasters
A member of Michigan Shipwreck Association said she "feels like we have failed" following the key juncture in the probe into the Northwest Orient Flight 2501 crash in the US Investigators have decided to end a desperate 20-year search for a plane which crashed into a lake - killing all the 58 people on board. The Northwest Orient Flight 2501 tragedy actually happened in 1950 but, since 2004, a dedicated team at non-profit organisation Michigan Shipwreck Association has engaged in a huge mission to find the bodies and remains of the plane. The crash was, at the time, the worst aviation disaster in US history and saw flight controllers lose radio contact with the aircraft, which reportedly experienced engine problems and careered into Lake Michigan. Only body fragments of the 58 victims have been discovered and the wreckage has never been recovered. Michigan Shipwreck Association used sonar technology and even got support from an acclaimed adventure writer amid the 21-year mission to find the remains. It was to no avail but the decision to halt the search has left the organisation with mixed feelings. Valerie van Heest, executive director, said: "It's a hard thing to have to say because part of me feels like we have failed, but we have done so much to keep memory of this accident and these victims at forefront that I feel like we've done better for them than if we'd found the wreckage." READ MORE: Expert details Air India plane's 'problem' she believes led to horror crash Scientists believe the plane, which was a propeller-driven DC-4, now in very limited use, broke up into pieces too small to be detected by side-scan sonar and likely "sunk into the muck" on the bottom. They reached this conclusion having scoured the 700 square miles (1,813 square kilometers) of Lake Michigan, one of the largest lakes in the world. The plane left LaGuardia Airport in New York City at night on June 23, 1950, with two stops planned on the route to Seattle. An intense storm suddenly appeared and the plane went down. Debris and body parts washed ashore in South Haven, Michigan. Ms van Heest continued: "We know this plane hit the water with great force, and we know there was no way to survive this." The expert has now written a book Fatal Crossing, which is about the mystery. Clive Cussler, an author whose adventure fiction has sold in the millions, financially supported a search until 2017. Also known for his own shipwreck hunting and underwater exploits, Mr Cussler died in 2020. Writing in 2018, the author said: "I hope someday the families of those lost will have closure." Mystery, though, remains for any living families of the 55 passengers and three crew members, who were travelling on the plane 75 years ago. Further atrocities have become the US' worst aviation disasters in the decades since, not least the American Airlines Flight 191 disaster on May 25, 1979. Some 273 people died when the McDonnell Douglas DC-10's engine detached from the wing, causing a loss of control as it took off at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois.
