One year after the Air India AI-171 crash devastated the BJ Medical College hostel complex and surrounding neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, the Patni family returned to the site on 12 June carrying the memory of Akash Patni, a 15-year-old boy whose final afternoon was marked by the quiet ordinariness of a summer day. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport, killing 260 people — passengers, crew, medical students, doctors, and residents — in one of India's deadliest aviation disasters.

A Final Afternoon

Akash, a Class 7 student who loved cricket, had spent that afternoon helping his mother, Sitaben, who ran a tea stall near the hostel complex for nearly 20 years. He brought her lunch, ate with her, and then lay down to rest in the shade beside the stall. At around 1.40 pm, while he slept on a cot under a shaded area, the aircraft struck the complex.

His aunt, Hansaben, recounted the sequence at the crash site on the first anniversary. 'He had brought a tiffin for his mother. First, both of them sat together and ate. There was good shade there, so he lay down and went to sleep,' she said.

A Mother's Desperate Rush

Sitaben had returned to her stall to make tea when the plane came down. According to the family, she saw the aircraft descend and ran toward her son — but a powerful explosion engulfed the area before she could reach him. An electric transformer also detonated, and a section of the aircraft fell nearby.

Sitaben sustained severe burn injuries to her face, back, and waist. Doctors later told the family that nearly 40 per cent of her body had been burned. 'Her face was burned. Her back was burned. The lower part of her body was burned. Her condition was very serious,' Hansaben recalled.

The Truth Withheld

The injuries were so grave that family members chose not to tell Sitaben that Akash had died while she remained under treatment. For days, they concealed the truth, fearing the shock could worsen her condition. 'She kept asking about him. At home, we called him 'Gadu'. She would ask, 'How is my Gadu?' Everyone told her he was fine and that he was in the ICU,' Hansaben said.

Akash's body was recovered and formally identified six days after the crash. His father, an auto-rickshaw driver, had been away at work when the disaster struck. 'Those who died are gone, but those who are alive have also died in a way. His father cannot eat properly. He cannot sleep. The crying has never stopped,' Sitaben said.

Unanswered Questions

A year on, the family says they have received compensation announced for victims' kin, but fundamental questions about the cause of the crash remain unanswered for them. 'We have no information about how it happened or why it happened. People say different things. Some say it was the pilot's mistake. Some say there was a fault in the aircraft. We do not know,' Hansaben said.

She was, however, firm in rejecting the suggestion that the pilot acted deliberately. 'I do not think it was the pilot's fault. He also had a family. He lost his own life. Why would he knowingly do something like that?' she said.

The Site Today

The first anniversary was marked by prayers and tributes near the crash site, where damaged hostel buildings still stand. The state government has announced plans to demolish the damaged BJ Medical College hostel complex and construct a new facility with financial support from the Tata Group. For the Patni family, the site is less about redevelopment than remembrance — a photograph of Akash now stands where the family's tea stall once served students and doctors. 'When we see this place, everything comes back. We remember how many people died here,' Sitaben said.