A WIFE on the doomed Air India flight excitedly called her husband just minutes before take-off to say she would be home soon.
Nurat Jahar, 29, and care worker hubby Sohail Iproyaliya had gone to Gujarat to visit family at the start of May.
He had to return home to Leicester a fortnight later, and Nurat was heading back on Thursday on tragic flight AI 171.
She could not wait to see her husband of five years and called him one last time on her mobile as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was taxiing on the runway ready to take off.
But around an hour later, stunned Sohail was told she was dead.
Heartbroken family friend Mohammed Ghanchi, 28, said: “Sohail had to come home after two weeks because of work commitments but she stayed to look after her father while her brother went to Mecca.”
Another friend Shahrukh Mg, 33, added: “They were very happy. We are all shocked at the loss.
“She was a very kind character, extremely friendly. Sohail is so upset. He flew to India yesterday.”
The couple lived just a few hundred yards from the Leicester home of miracle survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40.
The death toll rose to 279 with 38 people killed on the ground making the tragedy the worst aviation disaster this century after 9/11, and India’s worst-ever single air tragedy.
A total of 241 passengers and crew were killed when the 787 began to lose height 17 seconds after take-off when it had reached 625ft.
It hit the hostel of a medical college 16 seconds later, erupting into a huge fireball.
Rescuers yesterday made a grim discovery of another body in the jet’s tail section.
Doctors are relying on DNA and dental records to identify the badly burnt remains.
King Charles led a minute’s silence during yesterday’s Trooping the Colour.
He requested the tribute himself and he and other senior royals in the parade wore black armbands.
The King expressed his “deepest possible sympathy”.
Meanwhile, Indian politician Sanjay Raut speculated that the plane was downed by a “cyber-attack”.
The black box containing flight data has been recovered — but the second box, which records the pilots speaking, is still missing.
The plane can fly with one engine, leading to theories that it may have had a rare double engine failure.
British and American investigators have now joined the investigation.
The plane had recently completed the Paris-Delhi-Ahmedabad route without incident.
The pilot of the IndiGo budget airline flight immediately behind AI 171 on the runway aborted his own take-off when he realised something was wrong — and moments later watched as the plane crashed.
Air India is to retire flight number AI 171. The Gatwick route will now be AI 159.
Family at survivor’s bedside
MORE than 20 family members of the sole survivor of the Air India crash flew out to be at his bedside yesterday.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from Leicester, lost his brother Ajay on the doomed 787 flight.
The siblings were sitting on different sides of the same row, with Vishwash located near the emergency exit.
His cousin Hiren Kantilal, 19, said: “He can’t believe he has lost his brother. We are all heartbroken that we lost him.”
From his hospital bed, Vishwash detailed his miracle escape.
He said: “I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out.
“Everyone around me was either dead or dying.
“I still don’t understand how I escaped.”
Ketan Shah, from Bournemouth, was named as one of the victims. He was returning to Britain after visiting his sick father.
The 43-year-old, who lived in Bournemouth with wife Megha and their teenage son and daughter, had run a village store in Shipton Bellinger, Hants, for 15 years.
Fellow passenger Ash Harrington, 27, from Suffolk, was heading back to the UK on the flight with his father Suresh Patel and grandmother Radhabi Patel.
His mother Andrea Bonner posted on social media: “I will never heal this pain. RIP my son.”
Orphan fund £400k
A FUNDRAISER has been set up for two young sisters who were orphaned when their father was killed in the crash while returning from scattering his wife’s ashes.
Arjun Patoliya, 37, from Harrow, North West London, had flown to Gujarat to honour his wife Bharatiben, 42, who died of cancer in May.
Last night the total donations stood at £400,000.
All cash raised will go to a legal trust or appointed guardians for Jiya, eight, and four-year-old Roya.
The GoFundMe page, set up by a family friend, said the money would provide “security, stability and love in the years ahead”.
