He Came To India To Fulfil Wife's Last Wish, Died In Plane Crash On Way Back

He had come to India to fulfil his wife's last wish and immerse her ashes in a pond in her ancestral village. Little did he know, when he boarded a plane back to London from Ahmedabad, that he would not make it back home to his daughters either. 

Arjun Patolia lived in London with his wife Bharati and their two daughters, aged eight and four. People close to the family said Bharati died a few days ago and Arjun flew down to India to fulfil her wish that her ashes be immersed in a pond in her ancestral village of Vadia in Gujarat's Amreli district. 

A memorial service was also organised for Bharati in Vadia earlier this month and Arjun stayed in India for a few days to finish the rituals while their daughters were back in London. On Friday, Arjun boarded Air India flight 171 to London's Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad and the couple's two daughters lost their second parent in less than month.

Neighbours said the family is in shock. "Arjun's father is no more and his mother lives in Surat," said a neighbour.

Air India 171, which had 242 people on board, including 10 crew members and two pilots, crashed just 32 seconds after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport. The plane could gain an altitude of only 672 feet before it began losing lift and crashed into a building in the BJ Medical College complex in Meghani Nagar, very close to the airport, killing at least three doctors and one other person there. 

As of Thursday evening, only one survivor - 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British-Indian who was returning to the UK after a visit - had emerged, and Air India confirmed in a post in the early hours of Friday that the other 241 passengers had died in the crash. The dead included former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who was going to London to be with his son and his family.

In a statement on Friday, Air India and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran described Thursday as one of the darkest days in the Tata Group's history. 

"This is a very difficult moment. What occurred yesterday was inexplicable, and we are in shock and mourning. To lose a single person we know is a tragedy, but for so many deaths to occur at once is incomprehensible. This is one of the darkest days in the Tata Group's history. Words are no consolation right now, but my thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the people who died and were injured in the crash. We are here for them," he said.

(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)