He flew home from London to honour his father. The Air India crash took his life

As families wait for DNA tests to confirm the identities of loved ones, Namita Singh in Ahmedabad hears harrowing stories emerge from the decade's worst aviation disaster

- Namita Singh

Inside a modest two-bedroom apartment in India's Ahmedabad, Raveena Daniel Christian clutches the edge of her tear-soaked scarf. The home is crowded with relatives but the only voice that carries through the room is hers - spilling with loss.

Just 15 days earlier, she had buried her husband. On Thursday, her 30-year-old son Lawrence Daniel Christian, who had come home from London to perform the last rites of his father, was killed in the catastrophic Air India crash that has claimed at least 270 lives.

"He came only for a few days," she says. "He was returning on 12 June. Just a short visit - only to honour his father."

That final act of love has become a mother's worst nightmare.

"My husband is gone. And now, so is my son," Raveena says, wailing. "I have no one left to support me."

Lawrence had been working in London and was slowly building a future that included his mother. "He always said, 'Mummy, once I've paid off the loans on our apartment, I'll bring you to London," she says. "That year will never come."

Her last memory of him is a short video call from his seat on the doomed flight. "He said, 'I'll reach London around 10 or 11pm India time. Then I'll call you. I'm switching off the phone now."

Raveena had dropped him at the airport that morning and returned to an empty home. "I didn't feel like eating. I just had a paratha [fried Indian flatbread]." Then the phone rang. "It was his friend. He told me to check the news - a plane had crashed."

Panic-stricken, she rushed to Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, searching every ward until late into the night. "But I couldn't find him... My daughter gave her blood for the DNA test. But no one has told us anything since."