NRI Arjun Patolia had come to India to fulfil his wife's last wish and boarded the ill-fated Air India flight on Thursday to return to his two children in London. But he never made it home.

Arjun, 36, who lived in London, had come to India to fulfil his wife Bharati's last wish that her ashes be immersed in a pond in her ancestral village of Vadia in Gujarat's Amreli district. He left their two daughters, aged eight and four, in London.

His wife died on May 26, said reports.

On Thursday, he boarded the doomed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route to London, and died along with 270 other people on board after the aircraft crashed immediately after it took off from Ahmedabad airport.

Neighbours said the family is in shock. "Arjun's father is no more and his mother lives in Surat," NDTV quoted a neighbour as saying.

Just a few days back, a memorial service was organised for Bharati in Vadia, and Arjun stayed in India to complete the rituals while their daughters were back in London.

The couple's daughters lost their second parent too in less than a month.

The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route to London with 242 people onboard, crashed immediately after it took off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, leaving 241 people dead.

One person, the passenger of seat No. 11A,  survived the crash miraculously, the Ahmedabad Police said.

The lone survivor in the mishap was taken to the hospital and is under treatment.