India, June 18 -- Over a thousand people gathered on Tuesday in Nhava, a fishing hamlet in Panvel taluka under Raigad district, to bid adieu to Maithili Patil - one of the ten crew members on board the Air India Ahmedabad-London flight which crashed in Ahmedabad last week shortly after takeoff.

Patil, 23, was the first girl from the village to find employment with a commercial airline and the entire village had erupted in celebration when she got the job. When her family was informed of her death following the crash last Thursday, her mother Pramila Patil, maternal uncle Jitendra Chavan and a cousin had rushed to Ahmedabad. They brought her body to Mumbai on Tuesday via a 5.40am flight.

When the body reached Nhava around 11am, cries ren...