A flight full of stories: Love, farewells, and fateful escapes on doomed AI-171

Air India Flight AI-171 crashed near Ahmedabad, shattering dreams of passengers ranging from a newly engaged couple returning from the UK to a family relocating to London
AHMEDABAD: They boarded Air India Flight AI-171 with dreams, plans, and goodbyes, some returning home, others setting off to build a new life. By the afternoon, those dreams lay in wreckage near a residential colony in Ahmedabad.
From a couple who had just gotten engaged during a brief return from the UK, to a family relocating to London for a new chapter, and a pair of spiritual healers bidding a joyful farewell to India, the flight was filled with stories, now etched in tragedy. Some escaped by fate, changing plans at the last minute. Others, hours before the crash, flew safely on the very same aircraft.
'Goodbye, India'
The British couple
A British couple — Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek (39) and his husband Jamie Meek (45) — working as spiritual healers uploaded an Instagram video, which would turn out to be their last, from Ahmedabad airport saying how happy and calm India had left them.
They had been travelling in the country and posted videos of their holiday. 'We are going back happily happily happily calm,' Fiongal said.
Doctor couple's shift to London ends tragically
Doctor couple
The dream of a welcome transition to life in London for Dr Prateek Joshi, his wife, Dr Komi Vyas, and their children — daughter Miraya and sons Pradyut & Nakul — came to a tragic end. Dr Vyas, a doctor at Pacific Medical College & Hospital in Udaipur, had recently resigned to join her husband in London along with the kids
Last-minute change of plan saved bizman
Jayesh Thakkar, a Vadodarabased businessman and organiser of the city's 'Maa Shakti' Navratri garba, was originally scheduled to be on the flight but an unexpected delay forced a change.
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'I got delayed in Kolkata due to work and realised I wouldn't make it to Ahmedabad in time for the flight. That's when I decided to change my itinerary,' Thakkar said.
University president flew on same plane on Wednesday
Dr Devanshu Patel, president of Vadodara-based Parul University, says he's incredibly fortunate after flying on the same aircraft twice in the past 4 days. Patel took the Gatwick-Ahmedabad flight Wednesday, just hours before the same aircraft crashed on its next journey.
Couple took 10-day leave from UK to get engaged
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Vibhuti Patel and Hardik Avaiya had come from UK on a 10-day break to celebrate their engagement. Patel had moved to UK to pursue her master's at Leicester College. There she met Avaiya and both fell in love.
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