Prerit Dixit with his family.Six family members of a retired banker of Surat, who were in Canada, died in Sunday’s plane crash at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Virendra Dixit said that the entire family of his Toronto-based son, Prerit Dixit, his wife and two daughters, died in the crash. The parents of Prerit’s wife, residents of Ahmedabad, who had been visiting the family, were also among the dead. The six of them had been on a tour of Africa.
Prerit Dixit, 43, a former resident of Udhna Magdalla road in Surat, went to Canada after completing his graduation in Microbiology from Surat and started working as lab technician in a private laboratory in Toronto city. He married Kosha Vaidya 16 years ago and had two daughters Ashka, 15, and Anushka, 13. Kosha had been living with her brother Manan Vaidya in Toronto before her marriage to Prerit.
Recently, Kosha’s parents Pannagesh Vaidya and Hanshini Vaidya visited their son Manan. During their stay, Pannagesh received an invitation from a friend Prakash to visit Mombasa, said Archa Dixit, aunt of Prerit Dixit.
People walk at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Source: REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)Pannagesh’s daughter Kosha also expressed interest in joining the tour to Mombasa with her family. Pannagesh, his wife Harshini and Kosha’s family left Toronto by flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Sunday. From there, they boarded a flight to Kenya.
“We came to know about this (crash) from the news and we also got it confirmed with my son Arpit who lives in Australia,” retired bank officer Virendra Dixit told The Indian Express.
“All our family members, Prerit, his wife Kosha, and two daughters Ashka and Anushka, accompanied by their grandparents Pannagesh Vaidya and Harishini Vaidya died in the crash.”
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UNDP consultant worked on India’s climate change plan
Among the four Indians killed in an airplane crash was environmentalist and climate change professional Shikha Garg. Garg, 32, was a consultant (international cooperation) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and was working with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
She worked on issues around climate change policy and mitigation strategies, India’s action plan on Climate Change and international negotiation. According to a colleague, she was working with the ministry in the field of sustainable development goals. She was on her way to attend the annual environment conference of the United Nations Environment Assembly when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed. Ethiopian Airlines officials visited Garg’s house Monday evening. Her remains have not been handed over the the family yet.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted about the incident, expressing his condolences.
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Physician was on way to meet sister
Hyderabad: A 28-year-old general physician hailing from Unguturu village of Guntur district, was among the 157 people killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash Sunday. Dr Manisha, who is settled in the US, was on her way to Nairobi to visit her elder sister Lavanya who had given birth last week. She was a senior resident physician at the Department of Internal Medicine, Quillen College of Medicine at the East Tennessee State University.
She was also supposed to meet her parents, N Venkateshwara Rao and Bharati — who live in Unguturu.
