Air India crash victims demand answers | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and. we're joined by Azadeh Moshiri, our. South Asia correspondent. And Azadeh, you're in Ahmedabad in West India where. people are marking that plane crash a. year ago. Remind us first exactly what. happened. >> Yes, it was one of the worst aviation. disasters in India's history. It was on. the 12th of June a year ago now when Air. India flight 171 was bound for London.

Gatwick Airport and instead crashed in. just 32 seconds. 260. people were killed including more than. 50 British passengers. Now, behind me. are the five buildings that that plane. ripped into. This was actually all. accommodation for medical students, which is why 19 people were killed on. the ground. The crash actually happened. in the early afternoon and when we spoke. to the dean of the medical college. nearby, she told us that had the.

accident had happened any later, it is. possible that more people would have. died given a lot of the students were. out. Now, this is the exact place where. many of the people around me. associate associate this area to the. place they lost all their loved ones. And so a year later, many of the. relatives of the victims have gathered. here today to pay their respects. But. there's a lot of frustration because. even though it's a year later, we still. don't know why that Boeing 787.

Dreamliner crashed. The memories are. still so raw of what happened here. behind me, but the cause of the crash is. still unknown. >> Yeah, you talk about the raw memories. The authorities have been criticized for. the way they handled the crash site at. the time. >> It was a chaotic situation and I've. spoken to one of the forensic experts, an independent expert who actually was. part of the teams about a week later who.

came here and he was saying that that. the fact was that people were working. not only in in temperatures that were in. the mid 40° C here. There was smoke, there was fire everywhere and the scenes. were so chaotic that many were. overwhelmed by that. I also met someone. who actually lives nearby. He comes here. and he was feeding the the dogs, the. stray dogs in the area when suddenly. this crash happened. He remembers the. fact that there was just so much chaos.

He said even when he was pulling out. bodies and so many people were rushing. out here to help, the seat belts were on. fire. It was strapping some of the. victims in. He wasn't even sure that. anyone he tried to save survived that. day. So yes, there was some criticism of. how all of this was handled, but but they were also it was also a. situation that people here were. completely unprepared. pad full. Most of. the criticism today is about the fact. that they don't have answers as to how.

this happened. Now typically under. international guidelines, international. aviation rules, when a crash like this. happens, an investigation is handled by. the country's own investigating body. Here it's the Aircraft Accident. Investigation. Bureau. That's India's India's own. investigating body. And they were. required. per those guidelines to provide some. sort of update today. Not necessarily. the final conclusion, the final report,

that could be delayed if the. investigation is taking longer. But they were required to provide some. sort of statement and that has come out. literally in just a few minutes before. we started chatting. And that update, while it expressed its. deepest condolences to people like the. ones behind me who've lost loved ones. It offered few details as to the. evidence that it's been examining, any. conclusions that it's drawing. It said. there had been progress, but it didn't.

offer any new date, any date, any. estimate of when people here would be. able to find out why and how they lost. their loved ones. >> And that means people are still relying. on the interim report that came out. after a month, that 15-page document. Just take us through the key findings of. that. >> Yes, that was a preliminary report, a. 15-page document that was released about. a month after the accident, and there's. been a lot of attention around it. So. much so that in fact in this latest.

statement from the investigating body, they did also ask media to refrain from. speculating. Part of that is because of. the aftermath. of that report you mentioned. Now, it. examined many things. It examined the. weather, the safety record of the Boeing. 787 plane that was used that day, whether the pilots had had enough sleep, whether the the safety, the maintenance. checks had been performed as required.

It also examined the the crash site, any. clues, any evidence that had been. gathered at that point. But much of the. attention ended up being on a paraphrase. paraphrase conversation [music]. between the two pilots. It didn't. include the full transcript of their. conversation, but it did summarize a. question from someone they identified as. pilot A, so they didn't name which pilot. that was, asking the other why he cut. off. This was assumed to be about the.

the fuel to the engine, and the other. responding that he did not do so. Now, there aren't many details as to as to. what they were were talking about, but. there was so much speculation over. whether that was an indication that the. crash was because of the pilots. decision-making because of their. behavior and there was so many so much. speculation afterwards about the pilots. mental health and you can imagine the. pilots association here in India reacted.

very strongly to this saying it was. wrong to speculate in this way before a. full report had been provided. They. criticized the fact that even an excerpt. of the transcript had been included in. the preliminary report without any. further context and the BBC's also. spoken to the father of one of the. pilots whom so much of this media. attention ended up focusing around. He. was actually a pilot for years himself. and he said that now he was focused on.

protecting his own son's reputation. >> Yeah and there was some suggestion that. that theory that it was the pilot to. blame may have helped the manufacturer. of the plane Boeing and the owner Air. India escape any any blame for what. happened. >> Well there's so much at stake for. everyone involved not just the families. of the pilots of course but. Boeing Boeing will be very concerned by. all of how all of this develops though. they've also said today in their own. statement that they are continuing to.

provide support to the investigation. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner it has to be. said has an excellent safety record. Aviation experts will tell you that but. Boeing as a whole has faced a number of. scandals in the past not necessarily. when it comes to the 787 but but with. some of its other planes and so there is. a lot at stake for Boeing for Air India. they were already in a lot of financial. trouble up until 2022 and that's when.

Tata Group this big giant purchased. purchased Air India which was owned by. the government here in India and yet it. is a difficult difficult climate. environment uh for airlines. And Air. India has continued to struggle, and so. it can't really afford more hits to its. brands. And then, of course, for the. families here, there's so much at stake. And many of them have told us, the. people we've spoken to, that they are. consumed by all these open-ended. questions, and so they want answers. >> You talked about those damaged buildings.

behind you. hit by the plane when it came down. What. uh what is life like for people who were. were living in that area today? >> So, these buildings now uh don't have. anyone living in them, unsurprisingly, because if you look behind me, you can. see there's there are still completely. broken windows, uh charred walls, twisted metal. There are still all the. air conditioning units, some of them. which have been melted. Now, this was. accommodation for those medical students. at the medical college and hospital. nearby. When the plane crashed, it.

collided with these five buildings. It. broke apart. I can see the building. where the tail of the plane was lodged. in, the other one where there was a. right engine, another that had a right. right wing. Even behind me, to my left, there were bits of plane debris. The. whole wreckage was actually spread. across 37,000 square meters. That's the. equivalent of five football pitches. And. so, the devastation was massive. A fire. broke out in all this area. When we.

spoke to the dean last week, they told. us that they've only now, a year later, received approvals to rebuild and turn. this into medical accommodation. Uh. uh accommodation for medical students. again. So, that's going to begin, you. can imagine, in the months that followed. the crash. This site was somewhat. preserved for investigation. Not only. were they removing uh the the aircraft. parts, but they were also uh still. looking uh for for body parts, for.

remains uh of people who were desperate. to to have them returned to them for. either burials or cremations. Uh and and it has to be said that that. is not over. That work is not finished. We have spoken to one family, uh for. example, in London that is still uh that. is still trying to to get answers when. it comes to all of that process because. there have been mistakes made. Uh one. person, Mitul Patel, whose parents were. flying back to London, returned to the.

UK only to find out that in his mother's. casket a CT scan had revealed that it. also. contained the remains of an unidentified. man. Now, he is still trying to search. for answers. The UK coroner has sent. palm prints as well as DNA samples uh to. authorities here in India to try and. understand how this happened and who. this is. We know of at least one other. family, uh a British one that returned, a mother returned with her son,

uh a 39-year-old son, his remains, uh. only to find out they were actually the. remains of someone else, and she is. still searching for the remains of her. son. You can imagine how all of this. complicates their grief. We've contacted. the government of Gujarat here. We've. contacted India's foreign ministry, even. the hospital itself that was part of the. identification process, and we haven't. received any response. Though when we. first uh the BBC had first uh mentioned. some of these issues, spoken to some of.

these families last July, about a month. after the crash happened, the foreign. ministry, India's foreign foreign. ministry, did share a statement. They. said that they'd been working closely. with the UK from the moment that these. concerns had been shared with them, and. that all the remains had been handled. with utmost professionalism and with due. regard for the dignity of the deceased. But the families uh that we've spoken. to, certainly Mitul Patel's, have said. that these words were little comfort to. them. And so, this is an extremely. difficult anniversary for many of the.

families around India and the UK, certainly the ones who are here today. And the least they say they want is. answers. >> Now there was one survivor. Have we. heard anything from him? >> What he has said is that this has had a. huge mental impact on him. He's talked. about not being able to leave his room, not being able to. communicate with his loved ones, feeling like sometimes he would rather.

just close that door because. it is an incredible thing that he. survived in that seat that is now. considered a lucky seat by many, 11A. But he was also on that flight with his. own brother. And so the idea that he's. grieving and also. having this the all these questions, wondering why he survived so. miraculously. in a part of the plane that aviation. experts in the past don't say is the.

safest part. Knowing that he walked away. from the disaster that was behind me, those are difficult difficult emotions. to sort through. And certainly this is a. difficult anniversary for everyone. involved. >> Asadate, many thanks indeed. Asadate, Mishary there in Ahmedabad in West. India. If you'd like to hear more from. the Global News podcast, click the link. below. Thanks for watching.