‘Her innocent face still haunts me’ 💔

A young woman who died in her plane seat as her flight prepared to take off from Melbourne spent her last moments looking at a photograph of her parents on her phone.

Aspiring chef Manpreet Kaur, 24, was flying back to Delhi in India on June 20 for a visit to see her parents for the first time in four years after relocating to Australia.

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She suffered a medical episode as she was putting on her seatbelt, and the plane taxied back to the gate where cabin crew and paramedics unsuccessfully tried to revive her.

Her cousin and roommate in Melbourne, Kuldeep Kaur, told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Kaur’s health had deteriorated in recent months as she unknowingly suffered from tuberculosis, and she was travelling back so her family could help her recover.

The post-mortem confirmation of the respiratory infection means her body cannot be transported out of the country, and her family are in the process of arranging travel to Australia to farewell her.

The passenger seated next to Ms Kaur has now spoken out, describing the minutes between boarding the plane and her medical episode in the hope it will bring the family some solace.

‘It is very difficult to digest that a young girl with whom you were just interacting with has passed away in front of your eyes,’ retired army officer Ravinder Singh told news.com.au on Thursday.

Her innocent face still haunts me, and I want her parents to know she loved them a lot. She left this world peacefully looking at their photograph.’