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Heartbreaking Final Selfie: Doctor Parents And Kids Smile Aboard Air India Flight Before Fatal Crash
Shortly before catastrophe hit, two doctors and their kids took a devastating last selfie on board the doomed Air India aircraft.
The photo was taken to commemorate “new beginnings” because Komi Vyas, an Udaipur-based doctor, had resigned from her position and was relocating to London to live with her husband, Dr. Prateek Joshi, and their three kids.
Tragically, however, the family is one of the at least 241 people who perished yesterday when the plane headed for Gatwick crashed just after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat.
About 1.40 p.m. local time (8.10 a.m. BST), minutes after taking off, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed back to earth in the crowded Meghani neighbourhood of the city.
At least 260 individuals, including some casualties on the ground, are believed to have perished despite the plane carrying 242 passengers.
Dr. Joshi took the selfie, which shows him and his spouse sitting on one side of the aisle, grinning, while their older daughter and twin sons sat across the aisle, also grinning broadly.
Miraya, the couple’s daughter, was eight years old, and their twin boys, Nakul and Pradyut, were five.
Dr Joshi’s cousin, Nayan, said, “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.”
According to Prabuddha, the brother of Dr. Komi Vyas, she wed Dr. Prateek Joshi eleven years prior.
The tragic Air India airliner is shown taking off, then crashing into the ground and exploding into a lethal fireball in terrifying CCTV footage.
The recently leaked video shows the Boeing 787 Dreamliner heading to Gatwick speeding down the runway before tilting upward and taking off.
However, a few seconds later, the aircraft appears to lose control and is shown descending quickly while the landing gear is deployed and the nose angle is high.
A big plume of black smoke is visible rising from the accident scene as the plane then explodes upon impact in a spectacular conflagration.
Aircraft carrying 242 passengers, including 53 Britons, may have abruptly lost power ‘at the most critical phase of flight’ after takeoff, according to aviation experts.
Shortly after taking off this morning from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad Airport, Air India Flight 171 crashed.
The aviation accident was miraculously avoided by a British father.
The 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who escaped from the downed Gatwick-bound Flight 171 this morning, talked from the safety of a hospital bed.
The passenger, who was in seat 11A when the plane came down in a residential area of Gujarat, recalled: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.”
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me,” he told local media. “I was scared. I stood up and ran.”
“There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
The passenger was seen on shocking video leaving the scene with several obvious wounds.
While rescuers told reporters at the scene that they had retrieved scores of people’s bodies inside buildings that the plane crashed into as it came down, authorities had previously stated that they thought there were no survivors on the flight.
The disaster might have been caused by a bird strike on both engines or a sudden shift in wind that caused the engine to stall.
In order to analyse the wreckage and recover the black box from the downed jet, officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are currently on the scene.
According to flight data, the aircraft seems to have reached takeoff speed but not altitude, indicating “either a very late rotation or a stall shortly after takeoff,” according to Lt. Col. John R. Davidson, a former US Air Force pilot and commercial aviation safety expert.
“There are a number of possible scenarios: thrust or engine performance issues, excessive aircraft weight, poor trim or flap configuration, or a more critical failure that affected the aircraft’s ability to climb,” he said.
“Weather, windshear or even bird strike can’t be ruled out either at this early stage.”
According to footage that has been making the rounds, the plane’s horrifying descent “looked like a case of multiple bird hits wherein both the engines have lost power,” former senior pilot Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar told NDTV.
“The takeoff was perfect,” he said. “And just, I believe, short of taking the gear up, the aircraft started descending, which can happen only in case the engine loses power or the aircraft stops developing lift.”
Sanjay Lazar, an aviation specialist, pointed out that since the Dreamliner was only eleven years old, it was unlikely to have any underlying technical problems. Captain Summeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of experience, was in charge of the aircraft.
A bird strike “would explain why the aircraft did not have the power to lift,” he said. “If there were multiple bird hits on take-off, it probably could not have gone beyond the 6-7 minute threshold and started falling.”
Davidson explained that the low altitude and high speed reading at the final moment might indicate a “steep nose-down trajectory or a stall event” just after takeoff.
“This is consistent with accidents like Spanair Flight 5022 and Flydubai Flight 981, where mechanical or environmental factors combined with compromised lift performance led to loss of control during or just after liftoff,” he said.
The former pilot noted, “Flight data alone isn’t enough to determine fault — but it tells us this aircraft never truly made it airborne in a meaningful way.”
“Whatever happened, it happened fast, and right at the most critical phase of flight.”
Aviation specialists in pilot forums stated that it sounded as though the plane’s emergency wind turbine, the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), had been activated just prior to the disaster.
The jet stayed on the ground or was taxiing slowly for more than four minutes after it initially registered on public trackers, according to data records taken at 30-second intervals.
A few minutes after takeoff, the plane only reached 625 feet in altitude, which is significantly lower than normal for a commercial aircraft, according to preliminary flightradar24 flight monitoring data.
Just before the catastrophe occurred, the aircraft sent a mayday call, according to India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Prof Paul Williams, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, observed, “At the time of the departure, the weather conditions at the airport appear to have been very good.”
“It was a dry and sunny day in Ahmedabad, with temperatures near 40°C.”
“There was good visibility and light winds from the west. There was no bad weather in the vicinity.”
“There is no indication at this stage that turbulence or other weather conditions were a factor in the crash.”
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