Six members of an NRI family residing in Canada, originally from Surat and Vadodara in the Indian state of Gujarat, died in the Ethiopian plane which crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 on board.
Prerit Dixit, 43, a Toronto-based NRI, along with his wife Kosha (37), daughters Aashka (15) and Anushka (12) along with Kosha's parents Pannagesh Vaidya (65) and mother Hansini (60) died in the tragic crash. They were all going to Mombasa to meet Pannagesh Vaidya's friend.
Prerit, who is survived by his parents living in Surat, had moved to Canada after his marriage and was settled there for the last 18 years. He was joined by his in-laws in Canada.
"I last spoke to them on March 9 before they boarded the plane. They said they wanted to visit Africa and will return to Toronto on March 19," Prerit Dikshit's mother Parindaben told Outlook India.
Following the incident, Indian 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.”
All the 149 passengers and eight crew members from 35 countries, including India, who were on flight ET302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya were killed in the crash. A similar incident occured five months ago in October 2018, when a 737 Max 8 operated by Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea, killing 189 on board.
Following two recent fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts, Singapore will be temporarily suspending operations of all variations of the plane in and out of the country.