Pakistani Woman Among Victims of Tragic Mid-Air Collision in the US
Washington, D.C.: A Pakistani woman, Asra Hussain Raza, was among the passengers killed in a devastating mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in the United States.
Asra was aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 when it was struck by a US military Black Hawk training helicopter mid-air. Just moments before the crash, she sent a text message to her husband, Hamaad Raza, informing him that she would be landing in about 20 minutes. However, that message was the last he ever received from her.
Hamaad, who had been waiting for her at the airport, never heard from her again, his father, Dr. Hashim Raza, told Reuters.
“Asra was everything to us,” Hashim said, his voice trembling with emotion. “And now my son is a widower at 25. What do I say to him? They planned to have children, they were so much looking forward to that.”
The couple first met at Indiana University Bloomington, where Asra studied corporate finance and maintained a stellar academic record. Hamaad, upon meeting her, had told his family, “I’m going to marry her.”
Asra later earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and worked for a consulting group in Washington, with aspirations of serving in the government to improve public health.
“All she wanted to do was help people, and she believed DC was the place to achieve her goals,” said Hashim. “And she was an amazing cook—Indian, Italian, Chinese food. I told her to open a restaurant.”
She frequently traveled to Wichita, Kansas, for work-related matters, often visiting once or twice a month to assist in turning around a struggling hospital. She was on her way back from one such trip when the tragic accident occurred.
Hamaad and Asra had been married for two years. Asra, 26, and Hamaad, 25, were both graduates of Indiana University. Hamaad currently works as an accountant at Ernst & Young and had previously mentioned that his wife never found air travel comfortable.
Dr. Hashim Raza, Hamaad’s father, is originally from Karachi, Pakistan. A graduate of Dow University, he is regarded as one of Missouri’s most distinguished doctors and currently serves at the Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
The tragic accident has left the family and loved ones devastated, mourning the loss of a promising young woman who dedicated her life to helping others.
