Father-of-two Arjun Patolia was on his way back to London after scattering the ashes of his late wife – but was tragically confirmed as one of the 241 victims who perished on the doomed Air India flight 171
Two little girls have been tragically orphaned after their father died on the doomed Air India flight 171 – while returning from a trip to scatter their mum’s ashes. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London crashed in Ahmedabad, India, just minutes after it took off on Thursday.
The plane plunged into a residential area, with terrifying footage capturing the moment it hit the ground and killed hundreds on impact. Arjun Patolia had been visiting the north Indian city of Amreli to scatter the ashes of his late wife, Bharti Patoliya, in a local river. She passed away seven days earlier in London following a courageous battle with cancer, but had asked her husband to return her remains to India.
It means the couple’s two children – aged just four and eight – became orphans in the span of just 18 days, having now lost both of their beloved parents.
Fulfilling Bharti’s final wish, Arjun travelled to Gujarat, her homeland, to lay her to rest. He visited the sacred Narmada River – a holy site in Hinduism where many believe ashes must be scattered to purify the soul and achieve spiritual liberation. Joined by loved ones, he carried out several funeral rites in his ancestral village, about 150 miles from Ahmedabad.
But as he boarded the Air India flight home to London – back to the daughters he was now raising alone – disaster struck once more. Arjun was confirmed as one of the 241 victims on board the doomed flight from Ahmedabad Airport.
Shortly after take-off, the flight crew sent out a chilling “mayday” distress call. Tracking data from Flightradar24 revealed the plane’s signal vanished just seconds after becoming airborne. Horrifying eyewitness footage captured the aircraft ascending with its nose tilted upward before disappearing from view.
Seconds later, a thunderous explosion tore through the sky, followed by a towering fireball and thick black smoke billowing over the city. A British man was only the survivor of the horror crash.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, who was sitting in seat 11A, recounted the terrifying ordeal to the Hindustan Times: “When I got up, there were bodies all around me. 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.”
Loved-ones of the two orphaned sisters have launched a GoFundMe page “to provide security, stability, and love in the years ahead.”
The fundraiser, which has already surpassed £87,000 in donations, reads: “In a span of just 18 days, two young sisters – only 4 and 8 years old – have lost both of their beloved parents. Their mother, Bharti Patoliya, passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. Fulfilling her final wish, her husband Arjun Patoliya travelled to India to scatter her ashes in her homeland in Gujarat.
“But on his journey home to their daughters, tragedy struck again – Arjun was among those lost in the Air India Flight Tragedy in June 2025, shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad. Arjun left to bid farewell to his wife, never returned to the children they both raised. Now, these two beautiful young girls have been left without parents – their world turned upside down in just over two weeks.”
All funds raised will go directly to a legal trust or the appointed guardians to ensure every penny is dedicated to the girls’ needs, it adds.