Former Qatar Airways hostess and son die in plane crash

When Stella Konarska left Saudi Arabia at 1am on Sunday, she looked forward to a happy reunion with her family.

She was bringing her three-year-old son, Adam Konarska, to meet his grandparents, aunts and uncles in Nairobi after being away for more than a year.

But less than eight hours later, in a cruel twist of fate, the family was thrown into mourning after it emerged that the former Qatar Airways hostess and her son had boarded the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight.

Stella, whose husband is Polish, was planning to spend a week in Nairobi with her parents, then fly to the coastal city of Mombasa to visit her brother Amos Mbicha. She was to fly back to her Saudi base upon her return from Mombasa.

Yesterday, Amos told The Standard, the tragic news had shocked the family.

“We are all shocked, broken and devastated as a family. I have not only lost a sister but a friend too. Death has taken away my sister and her entire generation, her only child,” he said.

Stella, who got married at a lavish wedding in Poland in August 2015 and immediately quit her job as an air hostess to concentrate on her family, had a strong social media presence.

A cursory glance  through her Facebook page shows she adored her son. Mother and son were simply inseparable as they were always together in the pictures she kept sharing.

On September 5, 2018 she posted a picture of her son and declared: “Help me to wish my son Adam a happy birthday, I was in sweet pain on this day until I laid my eyes on him then immediately I fell in love with him... this has been the greatest achievement so far in my life. Loving him unconditionally. Happy birthday my son Adam.”