Air India Crash: Kerala Nurse Planned To Return From UK, Take Care of Mom, Kids

'She was the brightest among all the children in our family,' Ranjitha Gopakumaran's uncle told The Quint.

Ranjitha was among 242 passengers aboard the ill-fated London-bound aircraft that crashed into the doctors' hostel at the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad.

(Photo: PTI/altered by The Quint)

"She was the brightest among all the children in our family," said Kerala resident Unnikrishnan Panthaplavil, the maternal uncle of Ranjitha Gopakumaran, who was among those killed in the horrific Air India crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday, 12 June.

Hailing from Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, the 42-year-old worked as a nurse in the UK and was going there to resume her job after a three-day trip to her village, Pullad. She had come to review the construction of the family's new home and sign some papers.

While boarding the train to Kochi on Wednesday, 11 June, she had assured her mother Thulasi that she would come back next month for the housewarming ceremony.

"It's so unfortunate... her untimely death came at a time when she was finally emerging with flying colours after a long period of struggle," Panthaplavil told The Quint.

Ranjitha Gopakumaran.

(Photo Courtesy: Lakshmi S Nair/X)

'Ranjitha's Mother, Children Don't Know About Her Death'

Johnson Thomas, Ranjitha's neighbour and the head of the Koyippuram village panchayat, said that she had been planning to return from the UK for good and take up a job at the District Government Hospital in Pathanamthitta.

She wanted to be closer to home so that she could take care of her elderly mother, and her two children, Induchoodan and Rithika, who are studying in classes 7 and 10, respectively. Her father, Gopinathan Nair, passed away around 10 years ago.

"I've known Ranjitha since she was a child. Over the last few years, she had been struggling alone to bring up her two kids and take care of her ailing mother," Thomas told The Quint.

Ranjitha had previously lived in Oman's Salalah with her two children and her husband Vineesh, who had secured a job there.

The family returned to India after Ranjitha got a job as a nurse at a government hospital in Kerala. However, her marriage with Vineesh eventually fell apart, after which she moved to the UK to continue working as a nurse.

"Her children and mother still don't know about her death... we don't know how to break the news to them," her uncle Panthaplavil says.

"Rithika and Induchoodan have been asking me and other relatives to call their mother and ask whether she landed in the UK safely. The situation is just heartrending."

Panthaplavil, Ranjitha's uncle

Meanwhile, Ranjitha's brothers Ranjith and Ratheesh have gone to Ahmedabad to provide their DNA samples so that her mortal remains can be identified and brought back to her village for the last rites.

Ranjitha was among 242 passengers aboard the ill-fated London-bound aircraft that crashed into the doctors' hostel at the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad. While 241 people tragically lost their lives, only one passenger survived the accident.