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A Mississauga dentist was among more than 240 people killed Thursday in an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, 33, was the lone traveller with a Canadian passport aboard the London-bound flight. Her death was confirmed by her husband.

There were also 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals and seven Portuguese nationals on board Air India Flight 171, the carrier said.

The plane crashed in a residential area of Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, with more than five million people.

At least one person has survived the crash, The Associated Press has reported.

The biography listed on the website for Dr. Patel’s dental practice describes her as hard-working and dedicated to her patients. It said she offered free dental treatments to patients once a year.

She had graduated from a dental college in India before moving to Canada.

“The feeling that my work has made a difference in someone’s life brightens my day,” Dr. Patel is quoted as saying about why she became a dentist.

Her husband confirmed her death in a telephone call with The Canadian Press.

“That was my wife,” her husband said. “I am not in a state to speak right now.”

He declined to provide his full name but said he was making arrangements to travel to India with the couple’s young child.

Members of Dr. Patel’s extended family gathered at the couple’s home near Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday evening to grieve together.

At the door, Dr. Patel’s sister-in-law told The Globe and Mail the family is too distraught to speak to reporters.

News of the crash has reverberated across Canada, including within the Greater Toronto Area.

Roopnauth Sharma, the pandit, or priest, who has led a Hindu temple in Mississauga for 25 years, said he spent Thursday reaching out to other Hindu spiritual leaders in the Toronto area to form a plan to help the thousands of Gujarati and wider Indian diaspora affected by the crash.

A coalition of roughly 30 Hindu temples will be opening their doors to anyone who wants to come grieve in special memorial services on Friday evening, Mr. Sharma said.

“There’s a numbness in our minds – so many lives were lost so quickly and so tragically,” he said. “We are definitely here to give comfort to anyone who is bereaved or feeling pain or stress or trauma from this whole event.”

Mr. Sharma added that even though only one Canadian citizen has been identified as a victim, more of the passengers with British or Indian passports may have been residing in Canada, given the frequent movement of people between these three countries.

Gaurav Sharma, a spokesperson for the Mississauga-based Hindu Forum Canada, said his organization has been answering calls from people seeking information about the crash.

He said he has family members who work for Air India and people in Canada have been trying to get hold of him to ask if he knows of anything more than what the airline has released publicly.

While he was relieved to hear that none of his immediate relatives were involved in the crash, he said he knows many friends and family members in Canada who have contacts in Ahmedabad and in Britain.

“The families, I’m pretty sure, are devastated by this accident, so it will have a very long-term impact on the community,” said Mr. Sharma.

“We will try to help out in whatever way possible, although we are sitting thousands of miles away from India … we are so emotionally attached with this incident, so we will support in whatever way we can.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” to learn of the crash and is receiving regular updates on the situation. Canadian transport officials are in close contact with their international counterparts, he added.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford extended his condolences on Thursday to the family and loved ones of the crash victims.

With reports from Mike Hager and The Canadian Press

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