Gujarat origin family die in Ethiopian plane crash

Six of a family with their roots in Gujarat died in the Ethiopian plane crash on Sunday, shortly after take-off from capital city Addis Ababa killing all 157 on board. The deceased have been identified as Prerit Dixit, his wife Kosha, daughters Aashka and Anushka along with Kosha's parents Panna Vaidya and mother Hansiniben.

Prerit who is survived by his ageing parents, living in Surat, had moved to Canada after his marriage and was settled there. He was joined by his in-laws in Canada. As per relatives, Kosha was born in Mombasa and hence her parents knew many people of their community in Kenya. "One of their family friend Prakash was to wind up his business in Kenya and had invited Kosha's parents to visit them. Prerit and Kosha too joined them to extend their trip as a family holiday. While they flew from Canada, they all took a domestic flight that crashed."

Kosha is survived by her younger brother who lives in Canada whereas Prerit's brother lives in Australia. Prerit's father Virendra Dixit, a resident of Surat is in shock.

On Sunday, the airlines had confirmed that all the 149 passengers and eight crew members who were on flight ET302, months old Boeing 737 Max 8, from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya were killed in the crash.

Most of the passengers were from Kenya. There were 18 from Canada, 9 from Ethiopia and 8 each from Italy, China and the US. Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six and Germany five among others.