Reunion After 15 Years, Then Disaster: Couple, 2 Children Killed In Crash

The brother remembers it as a perfect celebration. All four siblings had gathered in Ahmedabad with their families to celebrate Eid al-Adha with their mother and it was a reunion that had been awaited for 15 years. 

That was last Friday. 

Less than a week later, the family’s world came crashing around them. 

37-year-old Javed, his wife Maryam, their five-year-old son and four-year-old daughter were among the 242 people aboard Air India flight AI 171, which crashed into a building in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Javed’s mother, who is a heart patient and was slated to undergo a surgery soon, has still not been told that she has lost not just her son, but her daughter-in-law and two young grandchildren. 

Speaking to NDTV on Friday at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where samples are being collected to carry out DNA tests to identify the victims, Javed’s brother, Imtiaz, said the family is devastated. 

“He was my brother. He had come to Ahmedabad to celebrate a happy moment. Now we have lost four family members. Who is responsible for this? Over 240 people have died. Will we keep losing people from our families… The plane had just taken off and crashed in a few seconds, how can this happen?” he asked. 

Javed, Imtiaz said, had gone to the UK to study 11 years ago, met Maryam there and eventually became a British citizen. 

“Javed had come here to celebrate Eid with our mother. She has stents in her heart and another was supposed to be inserted in two weeks. We are four brothers and sisters and have not gathered together for 15 years. Sometimes two of us would meet, sometimes three. This time, all of us got together and met our mother. Everything was perfect, just perfect,” he said in Hindi. 

Asked whether their mother had been informed about the deaths, Imtiaz’s brother said, “She hasn’t been told yet. She has heart issues. We have told her that an investigation is on, she has probably been told they have been admitted to a hospital.”

“There’s a pall of gloom over the family. They had two small children with them. I am sure you can understand…” he trailed off.

Wait For Body

Imtiaz said he had given his blood sample to identify Javed’s body on Thursday night.  

“I have been searching every hospital, hoping some mistake had been made with the names and they are there. We are being told the bodies have been charred beyond recognition, which I am not being able to accept. Only once the DNA report comes will we know… We are being told we will be given the report by Sunday, I wonder how they will do that for so many people by then,” he said.

Of the 242 passengers on the plane, 241 were killed. At least 10 people also died at the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad’s Meghani Nagar, where the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed.