New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Among the 241 lives lost in the tragic Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad was Aparna Mahadik, a senior crew member and the wife of Amol Tatkare, an Air India pilot.

Aparna was also the daughter-in-law of the younger sister of NCP MP Sunil Tatkare.

The ill-fated Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, operating as Flight AI-171, had taken off from Ahmedabad for London Gatwick when it crashed shortly after takeoff into a residential area near BJ Medical College, killing 241 of the 242 people on board. One passenger miraculously survived.

Aparna Mahadik had been an air hostess for several years. She lived with her husband and 10-year-old daughter in Oberoi Square Society, Goregaon East, Mumbai. Her husband, Amol Tatkare, was in Delhi at the time of the incident and immediately flew to Ahmedabad upon receiving the devastating news.

Confirming the tragic loss, Raigad MP Sunil Tatkare said, “Senior crew member Aparna Mahadik, who was aboard the crashed Air India flight in Ahmedabad, is my relative. She was married to my nephew, the daughter-in-law of my younger sister. Their family resides in Mumbai’s Goregaon area.”

“My nephew, Aparna’s husband, also works with Air India as cabin crew. He was in Delhi when the crash occurred. The Mahadik family was informed, and he has returned to Ahmedabad to be with the family and obtain further details,” he added.

In Ahmedabad, authorities have begun DNA sampling at Kasauti Bhavan, BJ Medical College, to help identify victims of the air crash and of the people who were in the building the Boeing Dreamliner crashed into, as many bodies were unrecognisable due to the intensity of the crash and the fire that followed.

Large numbers of relatives have arrived at the site, hoping to identify their loved ones through the sampling process.

Jairam, a local resident, described the horror he witnessed from two kilometers away: “We suddenly saw smoke rising in the sky. It was very high. When we rushed toward the location, we saw flames. The flight had crashed, and there were many people on board.”

The nation continues to mourn as rescue and identification efforts intensify, and the government has promised a full investigation into the cause of one of India’s worst aviation disasters in recent memory.

–IANS

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