In an unimaginable tragedy, two young sisters have lost both parents within weeks of each other. Four-year-old Kiara and eight-year-old Meera Patoliya became orphans after their father, Arjun, perished in the Air India flight crash on June 12 – just two weeks after their mother Bharti succumbed to cancer.
Arjun, 37, had traveled to India to fulfill his late wife’s final wish – scattering her ashes in her native Gujarat. The British national was returning home to his daughters when the plane went down moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad, claiming all 270 lives aboard in India’s worst aviation disaster in decades.
The girls now face life without either parent, their world shattered in less than three weeks. Family members describe the sisters as bright and loving, with the elder already understanding the permanence of their loss. “They went from having a complete family to having no one in the blink of an eye,” said a grieving relative.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised over £576,000 to secure the children’s future, with all funds being placed in a trust. The girls’ paternal grandmother, Kanchan Patoliya, has vowed to care for them alongside her younger son Gopal. “We will give them all the love they’ve lost,” she told reporters through tears.
