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Postmaster's Royal Mail fight as air crash kills father
The Independent
|June 22, 2025
A village postmaster grieving the loss of his father in the Air India plane crash is facing a battle with Royal Mail to save his business.
Umang Patel has flown out to India to join the hundreds of people attending the funeral of his father, Kirit, who died when the London-bound flight crashed during takeoff in Ahmedabad earlier this month.
Kirit Patel was on the flight for his annual summer visit to the UK, where he hoped to support his son and his son's wife, Vaishali, who run a post office and shop in the Somerset village of Pensford, near Bristol.
But their immense personal loss is not the only battle the family is facing, with a decision by Royal Mail to close a small delivery office in the branch threatening their livelihood.
This story is from the June 22, 2025 edition of The Independent.
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