New Delhi: A doctor from Gujarat was scheduled to fly to London on the ill-fated Air India plane that crashed last week but cancelled his plan at the last moment. All thanks to his wife and family members. The Ahmedabad-London flight with 242 people onboard crashed into a doctors’ hostel on June 12, seconds after taking off from the Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Of the 242 people onboard the flight, only person survived the deadly crash.
Umang Patel, a UK-based doctor, his wife, sons and their grandparents had come to their ancestral home in Gujarat’s Mahisagar district on May 24. Patel had planned to fly back to Britain’s Northampton onboard Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on June 12 after leaving his family in India. However, Patel fell ill after visiting his in-laws house on June 9 and his wife asked him to cancel the June 12 ticket and fly later.
“I was supposed to return to UK alone on June 12. However, I got high fever after visiting my in-laws’ house on June 9. The fever was so high I could not even stand the next morning,” Patel said.
His wife got worried about his health and insisted him to postpone the travel plan on June 12 and wait for some days till he got better. Patel’s father and his wife had also not allowed their son to leave on June 12. “My wife requested me not to go to London so I cancelled the June 12 ticket, and booked another for June 15. Then the news of the plane crash came. God saved me,” Patel, who has been living in Northampton for the last five years, said.
