The family of 53-year-old Sarla Ben clung to hope for the past 7 days. She and her granddaughter Adhya had been missing since Air India Flight AI171 crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on 12 June. On the seventh day, a call came. The DNA had matched. Their worst fears were confirmed.
Sarla Ben was in the kitchen of the BJ Medical College hostel mess that afternoon, doing what she had done for years, preparing meals for young medical students. Her granddaughter was with her. Minutes earlier, her son and daughter-in-law had stepped out to deliver lunchboxes to the nearby hospital. Adhya had been left in Sarla Ben’s care, as she often was.
“We searched every hospital,” her brother Bharat told NDTV. “We asked the media for help. We never stopped looking. Then finally, the hospital called. That’s when we knew.”
According to him, it was only after several appeals through TV and social media that the authorities confirmed the DNA result. “We checked every ward. Every room. It took so long for the sample to match,” he said.
For Sarla Ben’s family, the confirmation has brought sorrow, but also a painful kind of closure. For many others, the waiting continues.
On that tragic afternoon, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which had taken off for London Gatwick at 1:38 pm, plunged into the hostel complex in Meghaninagar. The aircraft lost altitude almost immediately, issued a distress signal within seconds, and crashed into the northeastern section of the college campus.
Inside the mess hall were 60 to 70 medical students. Many remain hospitalised with serious burn injuries. Officials are still assessing how many lives were lost on the ground, in addition to the 241 of the 242 people on board who perished. The only survivor was a British-Indian man seated in 11A.
The proximity of the hostel complex, barely 800 metres from the airport’s main runway has now come under scrutiny. Several civic groups have called for a review of safety regulations governing construction near airport flight paths.
The Gujarat government, led by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, has promised compensation for the families of the victims and formed a special task force to assist with body identification, documentation, and repatriation. Patel visited the crash site two days later and met with affected families.
Outside the civil hospital in Ahmedabad, families of other victims continue to wait. Temporary shelters have been set up by district authorities, and teams from the forensic department, municipal corporation, and Air India are working together to complete the identification process.
Many of the passengers were of Indian origin, holding foreign passports. MP Mitesh Patel confirmed that at least five families in Anand district lost relatives who were British nationals. Special arrangements have been made to fast-track DNA testing for foreign nationals, with embassy officials coordinating directly with local authorities.
A dedicated consular helpdesk has also been established at the civil hospital to assist foreign missions, including the UK High Commission, in providing updates to families abroad.
