Air India cabin crew from Manipur, Lamnunthem Singson, was only earning member of family: Cousin

Imphal/ Kangpokpi: Twenty-six-year-old Lamnunthem Singson, who was one of the two crew members from Manipur and killed in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, was the sole earning member of her family, which had faced the brunt of the ethnic violence in the northeastern state.

She had last talked to her widowed mother over the phone on June 11, her cousin said on Friday.

Singson told her mother that she would fly to London on Thursday and wanted to sleep early the previous night, he said.

The third child among four siblings, Singson was the "only daughter and their widowed mother had struggled much to raise all of them", her cousin Lun Kipgen said.

"The 26-year-old was the sole earning member of the family. Her eldest brother is unemployed and suffering from a chronic disease, while two other brothers are studying," Kipgen told PTI.

Though unwell, her eldest brother is already on his way to Ahmedabad, while another brother and a cousin went from Kangpokpi to Nagaland's Dimapur, and will go to the Gujarat city, he said.

Kipgen said, "We are devastated by the news. Her mother is in deep shock and refused to eat since the crash reports surfaced." Air India authorities called Singson's family late on Thursday and said her body was yet to be identified, he claimed.

Singson was among the 242 people onboard Air India Flight AI 171, which crashed minutes after take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon.

"There has been no survivor except one passenger," Kipgen said.

"Singson last talked to her mother on Wednesday around 11 pm. She had said that she would fly to London the next day and wanted to sleep as early as possible because she had to report for duty early on Thursday. Singson and her mother held routine prayers over the phone. They used to pray jointly over the phone regularly before sleeping," he said.

Singson belonged to a Kuki family whose members had to flee their homes during the ethnic violence in the northeastern state, her cousin said.

"Her family members, including her three brothers, had fled their home in Imphal during the ethnic strife and are now staying at a rented house in Kangpokpi district," Kipgen said.

The residence of Singson's family in Imphal's Old Lambulane area is near the Manipur Rifles complex and the Raj Bhavan.

"When ethnic violence broke out in May 2023, Singson was not in the state, but her family members, along with other Kuki families, shifted to Kangpokpi," another family member said.

Twenty-year-old Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma, another crew member from Manipur, was onboard the London-bound flight that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday.