Air India plane crash: Who was Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, sole Canadian victim of Ahmedabad crash

The sole Canadian passenger aboard the ill-fated Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad on 12 June 2025 has been identified as Dr. Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a 32-year-old dentist from Mississauga, Ontario. 

Dr Sureshkumar was returning home after a short visit to India when the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down, claiming 241 lives. Patel is survived by her husband and their one-year-old child, according to CTV News.

The Boeing 787-8 aircraft was carrying 242 passengers and crew members. The passengers comprised 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national, Air India said in a statement. 

“That was my wife”

Patel’s husband briefly spoke with the Canadian Press, saying, “That was my wife. I am not in a state to speak right now.” He also confirmed that he was in the process of booking a flight for himself and their one-year-old child to India, CTV News reported.

“It’s absolutely shocking. There are no words for this grief,” community leader Don Patel told CTV News Toronto on Thursday.

Don, who knew Nirali’s family, said she had been in India for four or five days before beginning her return trip to Etobicoke, which remained unfinished.

We’ll try to give them strength, whichever way we can. Sometimes words might not help them, but moral support or just showing up and being there with them gives them so much strength,” Don said of Nirali’s family trying to get to India, CTV reported. 

Ahmedabad Plane Crash

The Air India flight bound for London crashed into the BJ Medical College campus in Ahmedabad, tragically killing several medical students and injuring dozens of others. Except for one British man, all 241 other passengers lost their lives, Hindustan Times reported.

CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts revealed that the plane struggled to gain altitude before plummeting into a hostel, leaving behind charred remains and wreckage embedded in the building.

“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” the sole survivor of the crash, Vishwas Kumar Ramesh told The Hindustan Times from his hospital bed. “It all happened so quickly."

According to the Aviation Safety Network, as cited by Hindustan Times, this is the first-ever fatal accident involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which entered commercial service in 2011.