Six members of Indian family among 157 dead in Ethiopian Airlines crash

The trip of a lifetime to a safari park in Kenya turned into a nightmare for six members of a family from India in Canada who perished when the Nairobibound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis AbabaThe Boeing 737 tookoff from Bole International Airport on Sunday and lost contact six minutes later before coming down near Tulu Fara village outside the Ethiopian town of Bishoftu killing all 149 passengers and eight crew on board including tourists and business travellersThe victims included Pannagesh Vaidya 73 his wife Hansini Vaidya 67 their daughter Kosha Vaidya 37 her husband Prerit Dixit 45 and their two children Anushka and Ashka Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was quoted as saying by the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationWhile the Suratbased Vaidya couple were Indian nationals their daughter husband and two children were Canadians of Indianorigin The family who was living in Canada heading for a safari vacation were about to experience the trip of a lifetime in Kenya when the tragic loss happenedThis is an unbelievably tragic situation for this family Brown said in a statementAs more details become known I will provide a further update on how Brampton residents can assist this family Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this time of sorrow and reflectionThe flags at city hall will remain at halfmast until further notice in honour of the family Brown said in a message on Twitter Its a huge tragedy Manant Vaidya son of Pannagesh said I lost my parents I lost my sister I dont have anyone else nowManant said his sister who became a Canadian permanent resident in 2003 wanted to take her children to Kenya to visit her birthplace They thought March break was the perfect time for them to go over there have fun he said It was going to be a really great trip for everybody I asked my dad why he wanted to go and he told me that in his life he wants to go one more timeThe Peel District School Board said on Monday that two of our students Ashka and Anushka Dixit along with their parents and grandparents were passengers on the Ethiopian Airlines plane that was involved in a fatal crash over the weekend This tragedy has brought great sadness to the students and staff at Centennial Sr Public School and Chinguacousy Secondary School the school board saidTomorrow the flags at ChinguacousySS amp CentennialSrPS will be lowered to halfmast to remember and honour Anushka Dixit Ashka Dixit their parents and grandparents who lost their lives over the weekend the school board tweetedManant said he last saw his family on Saturday morning when he dropped them off at Toronto Pearson International Airport for their 10 am flight overseas Manant and his wife said they are currently speaking with consular officials overseas and waiting for more information on their familys remains the report saidPeople from 35 countries were reportedly on board the flight ET 302 when it ploughed into a field 60kilometer southeast of Addis Ababa According to the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia four Indian nationals were killed and they have been identified as Pannagesh Vaidya Hansini Vaidya Nukavarapu Manisha a doctor based in the US and Shikha Garg the United Nations Development Programme UNDP consultant attached with the Environment MinistryEthiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32 followed by Canada with 18 Ethiopia nine then Italy China and the US with eight each Britain and France each had seven people on board Egypt six and Germany five Twelve countries in Africa and 14 in Europe had citizens among the victimsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever