A GRIEVING father whose wife and only child were killed in the Air India crash is set to be deported from the UK in days.

Mohammad Sethwala’s wife Sadikabanu Tapeliwala, 24, and two-year-old daughter Fatima were among the 260 victims who perished in the disaster last June.

Now the 27-year-old faces deportation four years after arriving in the UK.

The Air India Boeing 787 plunged to the ground in Ahmedabad just moments after take-off on June 12, 2025.

The Gatwick-bound flight smashed into a medical college hostel and erupted into a fireball.

Mohammed had worked an early shift that morning so he could pick up his wife and daughter from the airport when they landed in the UK.

But before he left his Ilford home he received a call from his father in India.

Mohammed said: “He said the plane had crashed. I thought it must be a different plane. It couldn’t be theirs, but it was.”

Calls rang through to his phone for hours but Mohammed still could not understand what had happened.

He wept as he watched the news waiting for any signs of hope.

The true horrors of the disaster, and the number of casualties, were not clear from initial news reports.

“Then we saw that no one was saved,” Mohammed recalled.

Only one of the 242 passengers on board, Viswashkumar Ramesh, survived the crash – and he was miraculously filmed walking away from the smouldering wreckage.

Another 19 people on the ground were killed and 67 were injured.

An official cause of the crash is yet to be identified.

Since the tragedy, Mohammad has been engulfed by overwhelming grief.

“Just months ago, the apartment had been loud filled with the sound of nursery rhymes,” he said.

“I have nothing left. I lost my child, my wife. Everything.”

Mohammad moved to the UK in 2022 to build a better life for his family.

But he was on a dependent visa through his wife, who was studying International Business Management at Ulster University in Holborn.

A UK dependent visa allows spouses, partners and children of a primary visa holder – such as a skilled worker or student – to live in the UK. 

Seven months after his wife’s tragic death, Mohammad’s dependent visa expired.

“The solicitor told me that I do not fit into the bereaved spouse category and this is a rare event where a plane crash has killed a resident UK visa holder,” he said. 

Mohammad applied to remain in the UK on “compassionate and compelling circumstances” but his request was rejected last week.

In a letter sent to his solicitor on Friday, the Home Office said Mohammed had not been granted the right to remain.

The document, seen by The Sun, explains that Mohammad has family in India and continues to speak the language so would be able to re-integrate.

He has been granted “immigration bail” until April 22 when he must leave the country, the letter said.

If he has not left by this date, he will be detained and deported.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “All visa applications are assessed on individual merit in line with immigration rules.”