'Her phone rang several times after crash, none picked up': Air India flight cabin crew member's kin

Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma's worst fear came true on Thursday as the London-bound flight on which she was a cabin crew member, crashed in Ahmedabad, even though her family clings to hope as her mobile phone is still switched on and is receiving signals but nobody is responding to their repeated calls.

Twenty-year-old Nganthoi, who was a cabin crew member for the last three years, was among the 242 people onboard Air India Flight AI 171, which crashed minutes after take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad in the afternoon.

Many casualties are feared but the fate of the cabin crew member from Manipur's Thoubal district was not yet known as the authorities did not release a list of fatalities till the filing of this report.

"We called her up several times after receiving the news but nobody picked up the calls. The internet on her phone is also still on. However, we stopped calling her around 6 pm fearing it would drain the battery," K Khenjita, a relative of Nganthoi, told PTI.

A cousin of the cabin crew member said her last message before take-off was, "I'm going to London. In a few minutes, we'll take off. We may not be able to talk for a while." Wails pierced the air in Awang Leikai in Thoubal as the news of the crash reached the Sharma residence.

"We were devastated upon hearing the news... I was very close to her. Today, I can't help but remember what she had said earlier. She had said she was very scared of plane crash and did not know what she would do in such a scenario," Nganthoi's cousin told PTI.

"Nganthoi was recruited by Air India during a recruitment call in Imphal three years back. She had applied for the job just to try her luck as she was studying an undergraduate course at that time. She got selected and was based in Mumbai," she added.

The family members said they contacted aviation authorities to know about her condition but did not receive any update.

She said that Nganthoi's mobile phone rang when they called her She also expressed frustration over the spread of fake news about her death on social media without any confirmation.

"We are desperately trying to get news about her but fake news about her death is spreading like wildfire. Her photos and videos are being widely shared. It is really hurting us all as we are trying to balance our emotional trauma along with the challenge to get news," she said.

"My brother, who is based in Delhi, and another cousin based in Chandigarh are rushing to Ahmedabad tonight to the site for more information," she added.

Nganthoi is the middle child among three siblings. Her eldest sister works in a private school and her youngest sister is studying in class 9.