Downing Street says the public should be prepared for a significant loss of British lives after an Air India flight slammed into a building in India, killing 241 people on board, according to officials.
A British family of three who were killed on board the Gatwick-bound flight were identified by the Gloucester Muslim Community as Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter, Sara.
Sara was a “ray of sunshine” who “lit up the classroom”, said Abdullah Samad, headteacher of her primary school.
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He said the married couple were well known for their charity work and generosity.
“They touched lots of people and they will be missed by lots of people,” he told the BBC.
“They helped fundraise for the humanitarian efforts in Gaza and medical care for poor individuals in India. That was part of their service to the community,” he said.
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The couple ran an outsourcing services business, Iceberg, with bases in both Gloucester and Ahmedabad.
The company website says Mr Nanabawa enjoyed playing sport and socialising, and Ms Vorajee worked for sister company Rec2go after completing a degree in midwifery.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick had 242 people on board, including 12 crew members, when it crashed in a residential area. Air India said 241 people had been confirmed dead.
A British couple who ran a spiritual wellness company were also thought to be among the victims.
Jamie Ray Greenlaw-Meek and his husband Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, from London, were returning home on the flight after a 10-day wellness retreat, Jamie Meek’s brother said.
Their company, the Wellness Foundry, which is in Vauxhall, south London, offers psychic readings, tarot cards and aura readings, and has worked with Netflix, Google and Dior.
Its website says Fiongal founded the company in 2018 after experiencing a spiritual awakening following a mysterious illness.
His husband joined the team in 2023 as co-director and head of events, and offered psychic readings and life coaching.
In January, Fiongal appeared on ITV’s This Morning to talk about the meanings of people’s auras. A clip shows him joking and laughing with presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard before performing a reading.
On Instagram, the Wellness Foundry described the appearance as their “biggest gig so far”, adding that it was “very nerve-wracking” but that he was “honoured to chat about one of his favourite topics to such a big audience”.
As they waited to board their flight in Ahmedabad, the couple posted a video from the airport about their “magical experience” in India.
Of the 230 passengers, 169 were Indian, 53 were British, seven were Portuguese and one was Canadian, Air India said.
After issuing a mayday distress signal, the aircraft quickly lost contact with air traffic control, before slamming into a medical college, sparking a huge fireball.
At least five medical students were killed and about 50 were injured, according to Divyansh Singh, vice-president of the Federation of All India Medical Association.
MP Bob Blackman said some of his constituents in London had been notified of the deaths of their relatives in the Air India crash.
“The position is that we’ve got four workers at temples in my constituency who’ve been notified that their relatives, very sadly, died in the air crash,” he told the PA news agency.
The MP for Harrow East in London said these deaths were among the 52 UK nationals who died on the flight but that it was not yet clear if they also lived in his constituency.
He also said he believed there were many Indian nationals on board due to visit loved ones in the UK.
“We also know that there are 169 Indian nationals on the flight who are almost certainly visiting family and friends in the United Kingdom, but we don’t know where they were visiting or who they were visiting, what part of their family was, so a lot of the work that’s going on right now is to identify who those people are and who they’re visiting.”
