Air India disaster: Grieving families renew calls for answers on first anniversary

FAMILIES of those killed in the Ahmedabad Air India crash in June 2025 gathered for prayers and candlelight vigils in India and the UK last week, remembering their loved ones and demanding answers over what caused one of India’s worst aviation disasters.

Seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, the Air India Flight 171 to London crashed, slamming into a medical college and killing 260 people – 241 passengers and crew on board and 19 on the ground. Only one passenger survived.

Families gathered last Friday (12) in Ahmedabad and renewed their demand for answers, and for a permanent memorial at the site where their loved ones died.

Relatives have written to aviation authorities opposing the Gujarat government’s plan to demolish the damaged hostel buildings at BJ Medical College and construct new blocks in their place. A lawyer representing several affected families said the letter was sent last month, urging that the site be preserved, rather than redeveloped.

“For us, this place is not merely land or infrastructure. It is a site connected to lives, memories, grief, and irreversible loss,” the families wrote in a letter.

They urged authorities to maintain the sanctity of the crash site and establish a memorial that would serve “not only as a place of remembrance for families, but also as a permanent public acknowledgement of the lives lost and the importance of accountability and safety”.

The appeal for a memorial came alongside a wider frustration over the investigation. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said last Friday that its final report was not ready. Evidence from the wreckage and the results of various examinations were “currently being analysed”, it said, without giving a date for when the investigation would conclude.

For the families, neither answer was enough. “It’s been 365 days since the incident. The government should have been able to tell us the root cause of the crash,” said Tanay Gajjar, who lost his mother Jaya.

Kinjal Patel, who lost her mother, was more blunt: “It’s been a year, the government is not doing anything.”

More than 250 relatives, representing over 100 victims, gathered at a hotel in Ahmedabad to share memories and hold a candlelight vigil.

Relatives of Air India crash victims pay tribute at the crash site last Friday (12Shammi Mehra/AFP via Getty Images

At BJ Medical College, close to where the plane came down, politicians, government officials and foreign dignitaries joined families for a commemoration.

The damaged hostel buildings, still bearing the marks of the crash, remain closed.

Suresh Patni, a driver whose teenage son Akash was killed at the family’s tea stall near the crash site, placed flowers around a framed photograph of his son and lit lamps.

“He was a good student, and could have done really well for himself,” he said.

Fragments of bags, clothes and a melted shoe still lay half-buried in the charred earth nearby. “It pains us when we hear an aeroplane flying overhead,” he added.

In Leicester, home to a large Gujarati community and several affected families, community leader Sanjiv Patel described the grief as undiminished.

“Families have been striving for closure, striving for a way to move forward, for clarity, for answers and transparency,” he said. “Many are still struggling to cope, not just from the mental trauma, but the financial trauma that it has caused, coping with day-to-day life. I don’t think that we can put a timeline to this.”

Among those in Britain still trying to piece their lives together is Mohammad Shethwala, 28, who lost his wife Sadikabanu, 24, and their two-and-a-half-yearold daughter Fatima in the crash.

Having lived in London as a dependent on his wife’s visa, Shethwala applied for an extension on humanitarian grounds, only to be turned down by the Home Office. Now, he is pursuing a judicial review.

“Not only have I lost everything, but now I am not even being allowed the time to try and cope with this mental trauma,” he said. “I am not asking for settlement rights in the UK. All I ask is a couple of years to be able to move on in the country where I feel closest to the memory of my wife and child.”

London law firm Keystone Law, which represents 25 British families bereaved in the crash, said families expected and deserved to know why their loved ones had died. It said it was in “ongoing, productive and confidential negotiations” with Air India and its aviation insurers over compensation settlements.

British high commissioner to India Lindy Cameron joins commemorations in AhmedabadEastern Eye

Stewarts, another London firm representing bereaved families, said one year on its clients were still waiting for “meaningful answers”.

“For bereaved families, who have endured 12 months of uncertainty, the absence of clear findings only reinforces the sense of frustration and unanswered questions,” said partners Sarah Stewart and Peter Neenan. “A thorough, independent and transparent investigation remains essential.”

British high commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, visited the crash site last Friday (12) and laid flowers. She said 52 British nationals were among the 260 killed. “I will never forget arriving in Ahmedabad and visiting the site on that day,” she wrote on X. “My thoughts are with all the families affected.”

The AAIB published a preliminary report a month after the disaster. The document found that both engine fuel control switches had moved almost simultaneously from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” seconds after takeoff, starving the engines of fuel. It did not elaborate why the switches moved.

The investigation has drawn in the US National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing, GE Aerospace and the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch alongside the AAIB.

Extensive testing of the aircraft’s engine control systems has been conducted, including examinations in France, with further analysis of engine components continuing at GE Aerospace’s facility in Ohio, US. The delay in the final report is tied to that unfinished engine examination.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Pilots, which has more than 5,000 members, renewed its call for a judicial inquiry and opposed the release of any interim report, arguing partial findings could cause confusion before the investigation is complete.

Air India said it had paid interim compensation to 96 per cent of affected families, while Tata Sons, through the AI171 Memorial and Welfare Trust, had provided additional assistance to more than 90 per cent of eligible families.

The airline said it remained “committed to supporting every individual impacted by the tragedy with care and compassion”