She rescheduled her flight to surprise husband on his birthday, found herself on ill-fated Air India plane

And so, she decided to reschedule her flight for June 12, so she could be there for his special day. When the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lifted off from Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport on Thursday afternoon, Harpreet was seated in 22E. Minutes later, the aircraft crashed in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area.

In another cruel twist of fate, Harpreet had travelled from her IT job in Bangalore to her maternal home in Ahmedabad, where her father was recovering from heart surgery. She chose to fly from Ahmedabad rather than from Bangalore since she wanted to spend time with him, her family said.

Her father-in-law, Harjeet Singh Hora, told The Indian Express, “She planned to celebrate my son’s birthday on June 16. She often visited him, but this time, this unfortunate incident occurred, and she is gone forever.”

The family WhatsApp group that had been buzzing with good wishes fell silent, except for the devastating news. Rajendra Singh Hora, her uncle, said, “The whole family is shattered. This accident has shaken all of us.”

Despite living on different continents, the couple made it work with regular video calls, carefully planned visits, and the shared belief that their separation was temporary. They got married in 2020, their union blessed with hope but tested by the demands of careers that pulled them in different directions.

Harpreet spent a year and three months with him in London before returning to India when her own career beckoned from Bangalore.

“She had been making plans to move to London permanently,” said Rajendra Singh Hora. “The visits were becoming a bridge to a new life together. This trip was meant to be another building block in that future; they hoped this would be their last year of living apart.”