Amid the smouldering wreckage of the ill-fated Air India 171 flight that crashed just moments after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, a picture of a happy family has emerged as a heartbreaking reminder of the lives lost, a selfie taken moments before the tragedy by a family of five from Rajasthan.
The photograph, now widely circulated online, captures a smiling Dr. Komi Vyas and her husband, Dr. Prateek Joshi, seated on one side of the aisle, while their three young children, twin five-year-old boys, Nakul and Pradyut, and their eight-year-old daughter, Miraya, sit opposite, grinning at the camera. It was a moment filled with excitement and hope as the family embarked on a new chapter of their lives in London.
However, just 32 seconds after take-off, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London crashed in a residential area of Meghaninagar, engulfing the aircraft in a fireball at 1:38 PM. All 242 people onboard, 230 passengers, 10 crew members, and two pilots are feared dead, with only one survivor confirmed as of Thursday evening: 40-year-old British-Indian Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
The Vyas-Joshi family was among the passengers. Dr. Komi Vyas, a medical practitioner who had been working at Pacific Hospital in Udaipur, had recently quit her job to join her husband, a radiologist, in London. Dr. Prateek Joshi had returned to India just days earlier to bring his family with him from Banswara, Rajasthan.
“They left for Ahmedabad yesterday to catch the flight,” said Nayan Joshi, a cousin of Dr. Prateek. “Several family members from both sides had come to see them off. None of us could have imagined it would be our last meeting.”
A spokesperson from Pacific Hospital confirmed that both Dr. Komi and Dr. Prateek had been colleagues at the Udaipur facility before the latter moved abroad. “Komi had just left the hospital to begin a new life in the UK. It’s devastating. We’ve lost not just a brilliant doctor, but a dear friend,” the spokesperson said, struggling to hold back tears.
According to family members, Dr. Komi’s father had served in the Public Works Department (PWD), while Dr. Prateek’s father is a respected radiologist in Rajasthan. Dr. Prateek’s sister, an engineer, is also reported to be grieving the unimaginable loss.
Dr. Komi’s brother, Prabuddha, said the couple had been married for ten years and were excited to finally live together again after a long separation due to career commitments. “She was thrilled to be starting fresh. She couldn’t stop talking about how happy the kids were,” he recalled.
Aviation experts are now probing the possible reasons for the crash. Preliminary footage shows the aircraft struggling to ascend before plunging to the ground. Former senior pilot Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar told NDTV, “The take-off appeared fine initially. But just before the landing gear could be retracted, the aircraft began descending. This usually happens if there’s a sudden loss of engine power or lift. The investigation will clarify the exact cause.”
The tragedy has cast a pall not just over Banswara but across the entire state, as more names from Rajasthan emerged from the list of flight crash victims. Apart from the Joshi family, four residents of Udaipur also perished in the crash, including Shubh Modi (24) and Shagun Modi (22), children of renowned marble businessman Pinku Modi. The siblings had been pursuing higher studies and were travelling together.
Also among the deceased were Vardi Chand Menaria and Prakash Menaria, hailing from Rundeda village in Udaipur district, and 27-year-old Khushboo Rajpurohit from Balotra, known for her volunteer work in women’s education.
As rescue and forensic teams comb through the charred debris in Meghaninagar, hopes of retrieving personal belongings, including the phone that captured that final family selfie, remain slim.
But the image, shared by relatives in their grief, has now become a haunting symbol of a journey that ended in unspeakable loss, a reminder of the human faces behind the numbers in yet another devastating aviation tragedy.
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