Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Air India said on Monday it is in the process of returning personal belongings of the AI-171 crash victims, seven months after 260 people were killed in the country’s worst aviation disaster in nearly three decades.According to an Air India spokesperson, 22,000 belongings have been preserved and listed on a dedicated portal. Of these, around 8,000 items could be linked to specific individuals and are listed as “associated,” while the remaining 14,000 are listed as “un-associated.”
“Air India is handling this process with utmost respect, dignity, and accuracy. Working closely with a qualified external partner, our teams have spent considerable time cataloguing and documenting recoverable and returnable items,” a spokesperson told news agency PTI.“The exercise began on January 5 and will continue till mid-February. Information has been shared with the families through email and a dedicated website, and once they confirm the details, the belongings will be handed over physically in a manner that honours their grief and privacy. Several families have already collected the items which belonged to their kin,” he added.For “associated” belongings, emails have been sent to the concerned relatives with photographs and details of each recovered item, offering three options: to decline possession, collect it in person from a facilitation centre in Ahmedabad, or have Air India send it via courier.For the remaining 14,000 items, a separate portal has been created. The kin can either collect these in person at Ahmedabad or have them sent by courier, according to their preference.The belongings on display include a toy airplane, a toy car, a wristwatch, plastic bangles, a sweater, a pair of shoes, a half-burnt page of a book containing the famous Gujarati prayer “Mangal Mandir Kholo,” handbags, and other items.On June 12 last year, Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 en route to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical college hostel complex shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The aircraft burst into flames, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard and 19 individuals on the ground.The crash is being probed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
