New Delhi: On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner travelling from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed 32 seconds after take-off. All but one of the 242 on board the plane and 19 on ground died. A year since the tragedy, the wounds remain etched in people's minds.
At Terminal 3 of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Anu Chikkara holds her newborn baby tightly as she shares her fears. "As soon as turbulence hits, your anxiety goes through the roof. Your concern centres around your child, who still has so much of the world to see," she says, while her child remains distracted by her aunt's ring. Chikkara acknowledges the necessity of air travel but notes that she flies out of compulsion rather than choice.
While Chikkara stands near the exit, Varesh and Tanishka Sharma, a couple from Jaipur who just returned from a trip to Sikkim, come out from another corner of the busy airport. Having flown on an aircraft for the first time, Varesh Sharma says the Ahmedabad crash forced him to stall his travel plans for as long as he could. The couple explains how the tragedy has increased their reliance on buses and trains. "Our parents are travelling from Rajasthan all the way to Tamil Nadu by train. We prefer that they take more time but stay safe during their journey," he said.
When asked why the couple would not send their elderly parents via a flight, a mode of transport that would take a quarter of the time, Varesh Sharma defends his choice: "When such prominent personalities have fallen prey to airborne accidents, who are we?"
12/06/2026 NDTV
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