Featured Image Credit: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Air India, Travel, World News
Joshua Nair
Topics: Air India, Travel, World News
One of the Brits on board the doomed Air India flight which crashed shortly after take off on 12 June shared some emotional words with his loved ones just moments before the plane plummeted into a building.
Flight AI171 was bound for London, Gatwick when it took off from Ahmedabad.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying 242 passengers at the time of its departure, including 53 Brits.
But within just a minute of taking off, at 13.38 local time, the plane lost signal and the pilots issued a Mayday call before rapidly losing altitude.
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The Air India flight had only climbed to 625 feet before it crashed into a hostel located in a nearby residential area, which was housing doctors and medical students.
It was first reported by authorities that there were no survivors, until the man known as the 'miracle' in seat 11A, Viswash Kumar Ramesh, was revealed to have survived against all odds.
Pilot Sumeer Sabharwal, who also perished in the explosion, was revealed to have promised his sick father that he would take some time off after the flight to see him in a heartbreaking admission.
Ramesh Patel, one of the British passengers on board the London-bound flight, also had an emotional last few words for his loved ones just moments before the crash.
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His family spoke out after reaching Ahmedabad on Saturday (14 June), revealing that Ramesh would visit India annually to stay connected to his roots and to enjoy citrus fruit, his favourite.
Having arrived at the airport on Thursday, he called Kajal Patel, his daughter-in-law, and also rang her when he got to his seat on board the plane.
The first time he called up, he'd told her that his luggage weight was fine, to which she told him not to 'worry about it'.
She texted him to wish him a safe journey: "That's fine, you just relax, don't worry about, I will update everyone at home that you are safe in the plane," to which Ramesh replied to say he wouldn't call again.
But Ramesh did call one more time, saying that the flight was 'on time' and he was 'on the plane safely'.
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His daughter-in-law then wished him a safe journey and said she looked forward to seeing him that evening, preparing his favourite meal for his arrival back in the UK.
Ramesh's daughter, Priti Pandya, recalled her father trying to video call her on Tuesday, though she never got back to him after getting caught up with work.
She explained: "He just wanted to come to eat fruit, 'Jambura' fruit and he didn't come home."
She went on: "This is the first trip I have spoken to him three or four times within a week but when he video called me on Tuesday, I was working and I thought 'I will call him back, I will call him back'," before admitting that she 'got busy with work'.
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Sadly, he would never make it home after the plane crashed into the residential Meghani area. The cause of the devastating crash is currently still not known.