'What's the point?': AI crash probe report fails to ease grieving families' pain

Ahmedabad: "I saw the news briefly but frankly I have no interest in knowing what caused the accident or how it happened. How does it make any difference to me? How do I blame anyone for this?" says 65-year-old Abdulla Nanabawa from Surat as he breaks down while narrating his trauma over the phone.

"It was Allah's wish. Besides, there is no point with my dear ones gone. On the contrary, when I think about it, memories start haunting me," he added.

A month ago on June 12, he lost three members of his family including UK-based son Akeel, daughter-in-law Hanna Vorajee and four-years-old granddaughter Sara. They were among the 242 people on board Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, on its way to London Gatwick. The plane crashed into the hostel buildings of BJ Medical College, seconds after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. A total of 260 people died including 241 passengers and 19 people on the ground.

A month after the disaster while the family members are coming to terms with the losses, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in its first report, released Friday night, has reignited the memories of the disaster, one of the worst in recent history of aviation accidents.

The report stated that the fuel supply to both the engines of the aircraft had stopped merely 3 seconds after the lift-off as fuel cut-off switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position, one after the other, within a gap of one second.

While it is being debated and speculated how the fuel switches were moved from RUN to CUTOFF, the family members of the victims were indifferent to what caused the accident.

"Today, we spent the whole day in trauma as we lost our loved one exactly a month ago. Their memories came back flooding. I didn't see any news reports related to the accident. What is the point? No one would have done it intentionally and could be because of some technical issue. Whatever may be the case, but we have lost our family who won't be back," said David Christian, a resident of Ahmedabad.

He lost his son Roger and daughter-in-law Rachna in the crash. They had come to meet the family from the UK where they had been living for over five years.

Meanwhile, a month after the crash, the Ahmedabad civil hospital authorities on Saturday honoured 450 class-3 and class-4 employees for their "unprecedented work". In a statement, superintendent Dr Rakesh Joshi said that these employees worked tirelessly during the unprecedented crisis without complaining.