Doctor Couple and Their Three Children Among Victims of India Plane Crash

A doctor couple and their three young children were among the 242 lives lost in Thursday’s tragic crash of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, India.

The family—Dr. Prateek Joshi, his wife Dr. Komi Vyas, and their children, eight-year-old Miraya and five-year-old twin boys, Nakul and Pradyut—had been en route to London, where they were planning to begin a new chapter of their lives. Instead, their journey ended in heartbreak, and a smiling selfie taken just before takeoff has now become a haunting symbol of the dreams that perished with them.

According to NDTV, Dr. Vyas had recently resigned from her position at Pacific Hospital in Udaipur to join her husband, who had already relocated to the UK. The couple had carefully planned their reunion abroad, with Dr. Joshi returning to Banswara earlier in the week to accompany his family on the flight.

“They left for Ahmedabad a day before the flight,” said a relative. “Prateek had come just two days ago to bring Komi and the children with him. Many of our family members went to see them off.”

In the now widely circulated selfie, Dr. Joshi is seen smiling beside his wife, seated across the aisle from their cheerful children—an image full of hope and anticipation, now steeped in grief.

Tragically, that joy was short-lived. Just 32 seconds after the 1:38 p.m. takeoff, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner failed to gain altitude, descending rapidly before crashing in a fiery explosion. Aviation experts believe the aircraft may have lost power or failed to generate enough lift.

“The takeoff appeared normal, but just before the landing gear was retracted, the aircraft started losing altitude,” explained Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar, a former senior pilot. “This typically occurs only if the engines lose thrust or there’s a critical failure in lift.”

Of the 242 people on board—including 230 passengers, 10 crew members, and two pilots—only one person survived: 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British-Indian national returning to the UK.

The crash has sent shockwaves across India and around the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed deep sorrow, writing on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”

Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the crash, with calls for a thorough probe to prevent future tragedies. Meanwhile, the families of the victims—like that of Dr. Joshi and Dr. Vyas—are left to mourn lives full of promise, cut short in an instant.

Punch

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