A year later, AI171 crash lives on — in memories and questions

Several of the 241 families of the passengers and crew killed on board the Ahmedabad-Gatwick AI-171 flight that crashed in Ahmedabad minutes after it took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12, 2025, reached Ahmedabad on Friday to pay homage to their loved ones at the crash site and held a prayer meet in their memory.

The Ahmedabad-Gatwick Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash that killed 241 of the 242 passengers on board, leaving Vishwas Kumar as the sole survivor, had killed 19 individuals on the ground.

The families are mostly from across Gujarat and Diu.

Vihar, the teenage grandson of Chaitanyabhai Ramanlal Parikh – a retired government employee who was a resident of Sector 29 in Gandhinagar – one of the 241 passengers killed onboard the Ahmedabad-Gatwick AI-171 flight that crashed in Ahmedabad minutes after it took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12, 2025, says that the journey back home after a year was “harrowing”.

“Our air travel time of 13 hours ended up being 26 hours due to delays and lack of assistance from airline staff. We waited for eight hours at the boarding gate at the Delhi airport. It was a tough journey and a harrowing time for us,” said Vihar, who accompanied his father from London to Ahmedabad.

The Parikh family had shifted to London around four years ago. Chaitanyabhai, passenger number 113 of the Ahmedabad-Gatwick Boeing 787 Dreamliner AI-171 flight was to visit his son Kunal in London in June last year.

Vihar also claimed that the several documents. including his grandmother’s passport which Chaitanyabhai was carrying with him as a remembrance as she died three years ago, were recovered but not handed over to the family despite repeated requests.

“Several personal documents of my grandfather, including his phone, were recovered. We emailed the authorities concerned requesting them to send these items to London as we do not have anyone in India but there has been no response to the mails. The latest such mail was sent to them nearly two months ago,” he added.

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Samina Rafiq, mother of 24-year-old Faizan from the Union territory of Diu, raised questions on the manner in which the ex-gratis and interim compensation were handed over to the families.

Samina alleged that without confirming with the family, the entire compensation was handed over to Faizan’s wife – they were unaware that their son is married.

“We sent Faizan to London to study five years ago. He had come for some dental treatment and was returning to London on June 12. We only learnt later that our son had married and that the airline had handed over the compensation to her without seeking our permission. There is no response from the airline. How can they hand over the compensation to someone without verifying?” she alleged.

32-year-old Romin Vohra, a resident of Thasra taluka in Kheda district who runs a pathology laboratory in Thasra lost three of his family members in the crash, has similar complaints.

“The authorities concerned handed over the compensation to my sister-in-law without checking with the family or their approval,” Romin said.

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Romin lost his 33-year-old elder brother, Parvej Vohra, his three-year-old niece Zuveriya and 50-year-old maternal aunt Yasmin in the crash.

“Also, my brother’s mobile phone was damaged and handed over to me recently. The damage clearly shows that it was tampered with. When asked, the airline staff they had no answer. My brother who was in London for the past four years had a habit of recording the take off and landing. We suspect there was some evidence in the phone. When the bodies were claimed by me then how the entire compensation was transferred to his wife,” he questioned, claiming that he has written over 70 emails to the airline but received no response.

Kin reiterate demand for memorial at crash site

Nilesh Senta, brother of Bhavesh Dhirajbhai Senta (24), who was among the 19 individuals who were killed in the crash as the AI 171 flight crashed into the hostel mess building, requested the authorities concerned to build a memorial at the crash site.

“I request the government authorities to bust a memorial at the crash site and not a new hostel as remembrance,” Nilesh said.

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An MBBS graduate from the Government Medical College (GMC) in Surat, 24-year-old Dr Bhavesh Senta went to the B J Medical College in Ahmedabad on June 12 to meet his sister Dr Kajalben Pradeepkumar Solanki and brother-in-law Dr Pradeep Solanki – a neurosurgeon with the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

In the afternoon, as the trio was having lunch in a hostel room, Dr Solanki got a work call and rushed back to the hospital, leaving Dr Bhavesh and Dr Kajal, a homoeopathic doctor, behind. Moments later, a London-bound Air India plane crashed into the hostel building, resulting in the death of 241 of its 242 passengers.

Captain C S Randhawa, president of the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), also demanded a memorial at the crash site. “I would request all to come together and make a representation for a memorial at the crash site. The day land will be allotted and memorial work starts you will be on the path toward victory,” he told the families on Friday.