The relatives of three UK nationals who died in the Air India disaster have slammed Keir Starmer’s government for not offering enough support on the ground in Ahmedabad in the wake of the crash.
Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa were en route to Britain when they were killed in the horrific incident seconds after takeoff.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner met with catastrophe moments after departure last Thursday, in one of the deadliest plane accidents in terms of the number of British nationals killed.
Plummeting into a residential area of Ahmedabad, the airliner obliterated a medical college hostel and claimed the lives of 241 out of 242 passengers and crew. At least 29 people also died on the ground.
Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was the miraculous lone survivor, having been sat in seat 11A, nearest one of the plane’s emergency exits.
Air India said the plane was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian.
Mr. Nanabawa ran a recruiting business, while his wife volunteered at a an Islamic school in Gloucester.
Their devastated family have journeyed from Britain to Ahmedabad in the days since the crash.
“There is no UK leadership here, no medical team, no crisis professionals stationed at the hospital,” said a family spokesman.
“We are forced to make appointments to see consular staff based 20 minutes away in a hotel, while our loved ones lie unidentified in an overstretched and under-resourced hospital.”
Another family member said: “We’re not asking for miracles – we’re asking for presence, for compassion, for action.
“Right now, we feel utterly abandoned.”
The UK government pledged to do all it could to support British families affected in the wake of the disaster last week.
UK officials have been deployed to India to support the investigation, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed.
The King said he was “desperately shocked” and Buckingham Palace said he was being kept updated.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was in constant contact with Indian authorities.
He said: “I think it is important for all friends and family to contact the Foreign Office so we can roll out this as quickly as possible, but it is an ongoing investigation. It’ll take some time.
“But you know, our hearts and our thoughts are absolutely with the friends and families of all those affected who are going to be absolutely devastated by this awful news.”
Search and recovery efforts continued in Ahmedabad on Monday.
The plane’s recovered black box is anticipated to shed light on the engine and control settings, while the cockpit voice recorder will capture the pilots’ conversations.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, who has previously worked as a crash investigator for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, believes that if the flight data recorder is intact, key questions about the cause of the crash could be answered by as early as next week.