Two young sisters have been left orphaned after their father died in the Air India plane crash, just weeks after their mother died from cancer.
Arjun Patoliya had travelled to India to hold a funeral for his wife Bharti. After fulfilling his wife’s dying wish to scatter her ashes in Gujarat, Mr Patoliya boarded the Air India flight to Gatwick to return home to his two daughters, aged four and eight.
The Air India AI-171 flight departed from Ahmedabad airport in the western state of Gujarat at 1.39pm local time (8.09am BST) on Thursday (12 June).
However, after issuing a mayday call, it crashed into residential area of Meghani Nagar just five minutes after takeoff, India’s civil aviation authority confirmed.
All but one of the passengers on the flight died after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner struck a medical college, before bursting into flames.
Images and videos from the city showed plumes of smoke pouring from the wreckage of the plane as emergency services rushed to the scene.
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.
A campaign to raise money for the two girls has been launched by close family and friends, to provide the children with “security, stability, and love in the years ahead”.
“Now, these two beautiful young girls have been left without parents — their world turned upside down in just over two weeks,” the campaign reads.
The GoFundMe campaign has raised over £55,000 of its £300,000 target in the past day.
It can be found here.
Indian investigators have recovered a second black box from the wreckage of the Air India flight as they continued combing the debris for evidence.
The flight data recorder was found just hours after the first black box was discovered on Friday.
Rescue workers have finished combing the crash site and were searching for those missing in the buildings as well as for any evidence that can help explain why the plane crashed soon after taking off.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday. Modi also met some of the injured being treated in hospital.
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