As the death toll in the tragic Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad rises to at least 271, one man continues to cling to hope amid heartbreak. Ravi Thakor, a canteen cook at the college hostel struck by the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, is desperately searching for his two-year-old daughter and elderly mother — both missing since the aircraft crashed into the building last Thursday.
Just 30 minutes before the devastating crash, Thakor and his wife Lalita had stepped out to deliver lunchboxes, leaving their child and mother behind in the hostel’s canteen quarters. The explosion, which Thakor initially mistook for a gas cylinder blast, turned out to be the impact of the ill-fated jet that had taken off from Ahmedabad Airport with 242 people on board.
Thakor rushed back to find the building engulfed in flames. “We realise that the chances of finding them alive are bleak but we have not given up hope,” he said outside a local hospital, visibly shaken. His wife stood by him silently, both waiting for any news. “If one of the plane passengers could survive the crash, there could be a second miracle,” he added, referring to the lone survivor, Viswashkumar Ramesh, who escaped with minor injuries.
Police are currently treating the case as a missing persons matter. DNA samples from Thakor and Lalita have been taken, but no matches have been confirmed. So far, only 32 of the deceased have been identified, according to hospital authorities.
The crash not only claimed the lives of passengers and crew but also those on the ground, including students who were in the hostel canteen at the time. Remnants of untouched meals, steel plates, and tumblers still sit on damaged tables at the crash site — a chilling reminder of lives interrupted.
Thakor recalls gently rocking his daughter to sleep just before leaving for the delivery. “It is possible someone took her away in the chaos,” he said, holding on to a fading hope for a second miracle.