Family’s tragic final selfie: Doctor couple and their children snapped photo in Air India cabin to celebrate ‘new beginnings’ just moments before disaster

Two doctors and their children snapped a heartbreaking final selfie onboard the doomed Air India plane just moments before disaster struck.

The picture was taken to celebrate ‘new beginnings’ as Komi Vyas, a doctor who worked in Udaipur, had quit her job and was moving to join her husband, Dr Prateek Joshi, in London with their three children. 

But, tragically, the family are among the 260 who are feared to have died after the Gatwick-bound aircraft crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat yesterday. 

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner careened back down to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST). 

The plane carried 242 passengers but at least 260 people, including some victims on the ground, are thought to have died.

The selfie, taken by Dr Joshi, shows him and his wife seated on one side, smiling, and their young twin boys and elder daughter sitting across the aisle, also with huge grins on their faces. 

The couple’s twin boys – Nakul and Pradyut – were five years old and their daughter, Miraya, was eight.

Dr Joshi’s cousin, Nayan said: ‘They left for Ahmedabad yesterday to take the flight to London. Prateek had come here just two days ago to take his wife and children with him. 

‘Several other members of both families went to see them off.’

Dr Komi Vyas’ brother, Prabuddha, said she had married Dr Prateek Joshi ten years ago. 

Terrifying CCTV footage shows the doomed Air India plane taking off and then plunging into the ground and exploding into a deadly fireball.

In the newly surfaced clip, the Gatwick-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner is seen accelerating down the runway before pitching upwards and taking flight.

But just moments later, the plane appears to lose control and is shown rapidly descending with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.

The aircraft then explodes in a huge fireball upon impact, as a massive plume of black smoke is seen billowing out from the site of the crash.

Aviation experts say that the aircraft, which was carrying 242 passengers, including 53 Britons, may have suddenly lost power ‘at the most critical phase of flight’ after takeoff.

Air India Flight 171 crashed shortly after departing Ahmedabad Airport in Gujarat this morning.

A British father miraculously survived the plane disaster.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, spoke from the safety of a hospital bed after escaping from the fallen Gatwick-bound Flight 171 this morning.

The passenger, who was in seat 11A when the plane came down in a residential area of Gujarat, recalled: ‘Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.’

‘When I got up, there were bodies all around me,’ he told local media. ‘I was scared. I stood up and ran.

‘There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.’

Astonishing footage showed the passenger walking away from the scene with some visible injuries.

Authorities had said earlier they believed there were no survivors on the flight, while rescuers told reporters at the scene that they had recovered dozens of bodies of people inside buildings that the plane smashed into as it came down.

The possible causes of the tragedy could include a rapid change in wind causing an engine stall, or a bird strike on both engines.

Officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are now at the scene to carry out an analysis of the wreckage and retrieve the stricken jet’s black box.

Lt. Col. John R. Davidson, a former US Air Force pilot and commercial aviation safety consultant, said the plane appeared to have reached takeoff speed but not altitude, according to flight data, suggesting ‘either a very late rotation or a stall shortly after takeoff’.

There are a number of possible scenarios: thrust or engine performance issues, excessive aircraft weight, poor trim or flap configuration, or a more critical failure that affected the aircraft’s ability to climb,’ he said.

‘Weather, windshear or even bird strike can’t be ruled out either at this early stage.’

Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar, a former senior pilot, told NDTV that circulating footage showing the plane’s terrifying descent ‘looked like a case of multiple bird hits wherein both the engines have lost power’.

‘The takeoff was perfect,’ he said. ‘And just, I believe, short of taking the gear up, the aircraft started descending, which can happen only in case the engine loses power or the aircraft stops developing lift.’

Aviation expert Sanjay Lazar noted that the Dreamliner was only 11 years old, so was unlikely to have underlying technical issues. The plane was under the command of Captain Summeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of experience.

A bird strike ‘would explain why the aircraft did not have the power to lift,’ he said. ‘If there were multiple bird hits on take-off, it probably could not have gone beyond the 6-7 minute threshold and started falling.’

Davidson explained that the low altitude and high speed reading at the final moment might indicate a ‘steep nose-down trajectory or a stall event’ just after takeoff.

‘This is consistent with accidents like Spanair Flight 5022 and Flydubai Flight 981, where mechanical or environmental factors combined with compromised lift performance led to loss of control during or just after liftoff,’ he said.

The former pilot noted: ‘Flight data alone isn’t enough to determine fault — but it tells us this aircraft never truly made it airborne in a meaningful way.

‘Whatever happened, it happened fast, and right at the most critical phase of flight.’

In pilots’ forums, aviation experts said that it sounded like the plane’s Ram Air Turbine (RAT), an emergency wind turbine, had been deployed shortly before the crash.

According to data logs recorded at 30-second intervals showed the plane remained on the ground or was taxiing slowly for over four minutes after it first registered on public trackers.

Preliminary flight tracking data from flightradar24 reveals the plane reached an altitude of just 625ft after takeoff – a height far below standard for a commercial aircraft several minutes into departure.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane sent a mayday call moments before the tragedy unfolded.

Prof Paul Williams, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, observed: ‘At the time of the departure, the weather conditions at the airport appear to have been very good.

‘It was a dry and sunny day in Ahmedabad, with temperatures near 40°C.

‘There was good visibility and light winds from the west. There was no bad weather in the vicinity.

‘There is no indication at this stage that turbulence or other weather conditions were a factor in the crash.’