Eithiopian plan crash: Six of Gujarati family were from Surat, Vadodara

Surat: The six family members from Canada, who died in the Ethiopian Airline crash on Sunday, were from Gujarat and were travelling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The family members were from Surat and Vadodara and their relatives live in Surat.
Those who died were Prerit Dixit, 43, his wife Kosha, 37, their daughters Ashka, 15, Anushka, 12 and Kosha’s parents Pannagesh Vaidya, 65, Hansini, 60. While Prerit’s parents live in Surat, Kosha’s parents were from Vadodara.

Pannagesh, a mechanical engineer from M S University in Vadodara, had shifted to Ahmedabad few years ago. He used to often travel to Toronto and live there with his son Manan Vaidya. His daughter Kosha also lived with her biotechnologist husband Prerit in Toronto. Prerit, Kosha and two daughters have Canadian citizenship, their family members here informed.

Prerit’s father Virendra Dixit, 72, and mother Parinda, 69, live in Surat. They were informed about the tragedy by Kosha’s uncle on Sunday evening. The family is yet to get confirmation if bodies have been recovered.

“We are going to Canada and if the bodies are handed over to us, we will prefer to complete their last rites in Canada. We are yet to get any information from government officials but my daughter-in-law’s brother is in touch with Indian external affairs ministry seeking assistance,” Virendra, a retired bank officer living in New Citylight, told TOI.

“We talked with Prerit and other family members on Saturday. He told us they are going to stay in Africa till March 19. We had last met them in 2017,” said Parinda.

Dixits informed TOI that, “Pannagesh’ friend Prakash was winding up his business in Ethiopia and permanently coming to live in India. He had asked Pannagesh to come and stay few days with him. They worked together in past.”

Since Pannagesh and Hansini were planning to go to Ethiopia, Prerit and Kosha also planned to join with their daughters. They wanted to visit African safari in Kenya and Kosha’s birthplace Mombasa.

Pannagesh’s sister’s daughter Dhruti Trivedi, who lives in Ahmedabad, said, “Two years ago, my maternal uncle had come for my daughter’s baby shower. He had cooked wheat khichdo on his own and called up my mother saying that it was not as tasty as her recipe. She even promised to make khichdo for him when he returned to Ahmedabad.”

Union minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, tweeted, “I am sorry to know about the unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane ET 302. We have lost four Indian nationals in the air crash. I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families.”

Swaraj was contacted by family members of Vaidya and other deceased over twitter after which she assured all support to those family through Indian Embassy in Ethiopia and Indian High Commission in Kenya.