New York — At least 19 American residents, most of them going to India to visit. Relatives and 11 of them children were believed to ‘have died when an AirIndia jumbo jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Ireland Sunday with 329 aboard.
The 19 included at least seven U.S. citizens a suburban Detroit family of five, and a woman and her daughter from suburban Buffalo, N.Y. Other American residents believed on the flight included two other suburban Detroit families, a suburban Cincinnati family of four and another suburban Buffalo woman.
The Boeing 747, headed for London via Toronto and Montreal, disappeared from radar screens off Ireland. All aboard were thought to have died.
Pulivelil K. Jacob, his wife and three children, of Canton Township, boarded the plane in Toronto, said Jacob Mathews, who described the family as his close friends and American citizens. They were bound for a visit with relatives in ~southern India, said Mathews, of Dearborn Heights.
He identified the family as Jacob, about 43; his wife, Aleykutty, about 42; and their three children, Jessey, 18, Jhansy, 11 and Jestin, 8.
Air India’s list of passengers aboard its Flight 182 contains the names of P. Jacob and four other Jacobs without first initials.
Aleykutty Job, 42, of Tonawanda, a Buffalo suburb, was believed to have been a passenger aboard the flight. She was flying with her daughter, Tenna, 14, said her cousin, Joseph Madathil, of Rochester, N.Y.
Ms. Job and her daughter were American citizens, Madathil said, and were on their way to India to visit the girl’s grandparents.
Air India’s initial list included two Jobs, one with a first initial “A.”
Rajeshwar Gapta, his wife Swatantar, 15yearold daughter Vandahnah and 12yearold son Shaffi, all of Anderson Township, Ohio, boarded the flight in Montreal as they headed back to India to visit relatives, said Prem Garg, Gupta’s brother-in-law.
Garg said he received a phone call from a cousin in Montreal telling him the Guptas were aboard the flight. He said he’d received no further information, and he assumed they were among the dead.
Prabha Reddy, 35, of North Tonawanda, N.Y., boarded the plane in Toronto and was planning to visit relatives in India, said her husband, Molakala Reddy.
Sudhir Gupta, of Farmington Hills, Mich., said his wife Shashi, daughter Arti, 9, and son Amit, 6, were on the plane.
Sundar Swaminathan, of Sterling Heights, Mich., said his wife Indira, 38; and their children Anand, 15, Padma, 8, and Ramya, 5, were aboard the plane. Three Swaminathans were on Air India’s list.
In Rochester, Madathil said he was told of Ms. Job and her daughter being aboard the flight by his brotherinlaw, Thomas Chanqueal, who took them to Toronto Saturday to board the jet.
Madathil said Mrs. Job, whom he described as a distant cousin, had been in the United States about 15 years, and was divorced.
She was a registered nurse at the Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Buffalo, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 28, 1985
