Brit Lawrence Daniel Christian, 26, took a heartbreaking final photo with his mum outside the airport before he boarded the doomed Air India flight that took his life
A recently married British man, who travelled to India after his dad died, posed for a heartbreaking final photo before he boarded the doomed Air India flight.
Lawrence Daniel Christian, 26, took a picture with his mum, Raveena, outside Ahmedabad Airport on Thursday just before he boarded the aircraft bound for Gatwick Airport. 241 passengers onboard were killed when the plane tragically crashed and fireballed into a medical college hostel just minutes after take off. Only one passenger unbelievably walked away from the tragedy alive, as at least 270 bodies have been recovered from the crash site so far.
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Lawrence had boarded the Boeing Dreamliner to go back to his home in London, where he lived with his newlywed wife. His aunt, who was not named, spoke to local media and said: “We tried calling him repeatedly after seeing the news.
“We rushed to the plane crash site and saw the plane completely destroyed. We lost Lawrence Christian in this crash, just days after we lost his father.” A family friend in the UK said his widow was heartbroken by the tragedy.
The friend said: “She keeps saying this must be a mistake.” It is believed Lawrence had lived in the UK for around 18 months before his tragic death.
This horrific tragedy has also left two young British girls orphaned after their dad, who had travelled to India to scatter his late wife’s ashes, died on the flight. Arjun Patolia had been visiting the north Indian city of Amreli to fulfil his wife’s final wish and scatter her ashes in a local river.
His wife Bharati had died just seven days earlier in London and the air disaster has left their eight and a four year old daughters, who are living in London, without parents.
An “angel” NHS nurse working in a UK hospital was also named as a victim on the tragic flight. Renjitha Gopakumaran, who was working at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, had been returning to the UK after a holiday to see family in her home country.
Her colleagues at the NHS hospital paid tribute to the mother and said she was a “beautiful lady” who showed her patients and co-workers “so much love and care”.
Renjitha, said to be in her 40s, “had the biggest heart and brightest smile”, one colleague said. She reportedly had two children in India and was in the UK completing her degree as part of a five-year sabbatical.
The deadly crash also killed several people on the ground. At least eight deaths have been confirmed, and authorities in Ahmedabad said four of those victims were medical students living in one of the buildings into which the plane crashed.