Newly Engaged Young Couple Was Killed in Air India Crash, Days After Proposal

A newly engaged couple was among the nearly 300 passengers who were killed in the Air India plane crash.

Hardik Avaiya, 27, and Vibhooti Patel, 28, had traveled from their home in Leicester, England, to get engaged in India — and were on their way back to the U.K. on Thursday, June 12, when Air India Flight AI-171 tragically crashed just seconds after takeoff — according to reports from the Times of India, the BBC and Leicestershire Live.

Speaking to the Times, Darshan Patel, an elected official in Vibhooti’s hometown of Umbhel, Gujarat, said the pair had “come home on a 10-day leave to get engaged.”

“The couple had just celebrated their engagement in Umbhel last week before boarding AI-171 to return to the U.K.,” he added to the outlet.

One of the couple’s friends, Dhaval Patel, was on his way to Gatwick Airport to pick them up from their trip when he heard the news of the plane crash.

“We were on our way to pick him up when I got a call to say a plane to Gatwick had crashed in Ahmedabad,” Dhaval told the BBC. “So we immediately checked the ticket and matched the flight number, and we just cried.”

“It’s devastating,” another friend of the couple, identified as Margi by Leicestershire Live, said. “They were very good people. I can’t believe it’s happened.”

Patel was a physiotherapist who had moved to the U.K. to get her master’s degree at Leicester College. She later met Avaiya in the Leicester area, where he worked in a warehouse while also volunteering at their temple as a secretary, the outlets reported.

The couple’s friends also remembered them as high achievers who were active in their local religious community while speaking to Leicestershire Live and the BBC.

“When [Avaiya] left, he asked the staff if the temple needed anything bringing back, that’s the kind of person he was,” Dhaval told the BBC. “He didn’t like the limelight, he just worked in the background to get things done.”

Another member of their temple, Rajesh Patel, told Leicestershire Live that all of Avaiya’s family was living in India, but he had found a community through their temple.

“On his days off, he would often visit the temple because he didn’t have any relatives in the U.K., just his group of friends,” the friend said.

“He was jovial, liked to crack a joke. He was dedicated, hard working, very pleasant,” Dhaval added of Avaiya. “He was [a] model devotee and volunteer because he had selfless service.”

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Shortly after Air India Flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:38 p.m. local time, it crashed into a residential area.

Air India confirmed that there were 230 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The passengers were Indian, British and Portuguese nationals, as well as one person from Canada.

An official number of people who have died from the crash has not yet been released, but CNN estimated that the death toll has escalated to over 290. Air India confirmed that a British man was the “sole survivor” out of the total on board the aircraft.

Avaiya and Patel’s friends and family in both the U.K. and India have been left feeling “absolutely devastated” after the tragedy.

“It’s like losing a family member,” Dhaval told the BBC. “Events like this, people come together and give their respects, and [it] gives us some sort of a release from the feeling of shock and feeling distraught.”

“It’s a feeling of helplessness, emptiness, normally if something goes wrong, we can sort things out, but this has been very difficult,” he added.