In a week marked by unimaginable grief, the story of Arjun Manubhai Patolia stands out as the most tragic among the victims of the Air India Flight AI 171 disaster.
A devoted husband and father, he lost his life shortly after honouring his late wife’s final wish, and now leaves behind two young daughters in London.
The 36-year-old Indian-origin man lost his life in Thursday’s catastrophic crash of Air India Flight AI‑171, just hours after performing the final rites for his wife in Gujarat .
He had returned to his ancestral village of Vadiya, in Amreli district, to fulfil his wife Bharatiben’s dying wish of immersing her ashes in the waters of the Narmada River .
Bharatiben had passed away in London just a week prior.
With two young daughters (aged 4 and 8) awaiting their return in the UK, Patolia performed the immersion rites alongside family in Vadiya.
Soon after, he boarded the Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick from Ahmedabad.
Arjun’s nephew, Krish Jagdish Patolia told India Today, “It’s heartbreaking. We have lost both of them in one week.”
His daughters now face an unimaginable reality, both parents taken from them in the span of seven days