A heart-wrenching tragedy unfolded in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon when an Air India flight en route to London crashed a few minutes after take-off. The Air India flight departed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1.38 pm and crash-landed into a residential area in the Meghani Nagar area, impacting a hostel.
While Bollywood sends prayers and condolences to the families of the victims, this devastating incident hits close to home for actor Vikrant Massey, who mourns the death of his cousin—First Officer Clive Kunder.
Massey took to his Instagram stories to express his sorrow. He wrote: “My heart breaks for the families & loved ones of the ones who lost their lives in the unimaginably tragic air crash in Ahmedabad today. It pains me even more to know that my uncle, Clifford Kunder, lost his son, Clive Kunder, who was the 1st officer operating on that fateful flight. May God give strength to you and your family, uncle, and all deeply affected.”
The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who has clocked in 8,200 hours of flight time. Co-pilot Kunder had 1,100 hours of flying experience.
The aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had 242 people on board—230 passengers, 10 crew members and 2 pilots. The only survivor has been identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who miraculously escaped the wreckage.
Air India also confirmed in a statement that there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian national on board.