A shocked city and a family reunion that was cut short on doomed flight

The bustling city of Thane struggled to come to terms with the death of four members of a family – a estranged couple and their two kids – whose yearly vacation in picturesque Nepal was tragically cut short when the plane carrying them crashed in mountains in the neighboring country.

Businessman Ashok Kumar Tripathi and his Thane-based estranged wife Vaibhavi Bandekar Tripathi were on a reunion trip to the Himalayan country along with their kids, son Dhanush (22) and daughter Ritika (15), when the tragedy struck on Sunday. Ashok Tripathi (54), who ran a company in Odisha, and Vaibhavi Tripathi (51), who worked in a financial firm in Mumbai, had separated following court orders, an official from the Kapurbawdi police station in Thane said on Monday.