What began as a moment of joy, a family of five smiling for a selfie before takeoff, became a haunting final memory. Just minutes later, Air India Flight AI171 crashed after departing from Ahmedabad International Airport, killing nearly everyone on board.
The family in the photo, Dr. Komi Vyas, her husband Dr. Prateek Joshi, and their three young children, were bound for a new life in the UK, The Telegraph reports.
That final selfie, taken just before departure, has since become a tragic symbol of what was lost.
“A final moment captured, never knowing it would be their last,” one social media user wrote, echoing the sentiment of many stunned by the disaster.
Flight AI171 was carrying 242 people, 230 passengers and 12 crew, en route from Ahmedabad to London on Thursday, June 12.
Among them were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens, and one Canadian.
The aircraft lifted off at 1:39 p.m. local time, but within 33 seconds, it plunged into a residential neighborhood and burst into flames. The crash left more than 260 people dead, including several on the ground.
Dr. Komi Vyas, a pathologist, had recently left her job in Rajasthan to reunite with her husband in London, where he worked as a radiologist. Their children, eight-year-old Miraya and five-year-old twin boys, Pradyut and Nakul, were excited to begin a new life abroad. Prateek had just flown to India days earlier to bring his family back with him.
“They were so happy,” said cousin Nayan Joshi, via Business Today. “They’d been preparing for this move for a month.”
Loved ones had gathered at the airport to send them off, unaware it would be their final goodbye. In the heartbreaking selfie, the couple is seen smiling, seated closely together, their three children beaming beside them, just moments before the fatal takeoff.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, both veteran aviators with over 9,000 hours combined, issued a mayday call almost immediately after takeoff, as previously reported.
The aircraft reached an altitude of only 625 feet before descending rapidly. Within seconds, it slammed into a medical college dormitory, erupting into a fireball. The aircraft’s tail was later seen jutting from a building amid the wreckage.
Amid the devastation, 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, somehow survived. Seated in 11A, he had been returning to London after visiting family in India. His brother, seated elsewhere on the same flight, was among the dead.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” Vishwash recounted from his hospital bed. “When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I stood up and ran.”
Online, the heartbreak reverberated far beyond India. “Can’t imagine the terror of the parents upon realizing the truth that they’re about to crash,” one commenter wrote, summing up the anguish felt by many.
For the family whose hopeful journey ended in flames, their final photo remains – a frozen moment of love, optimism, and the unimaginable that followed.