“Our world has fallen apart, and we want justice,” says Nehal, her eyes welling up.
“We lost four members of our family. I can’t even tell you what we’ve been through. Just thinking of it makes me cry.”
Nehal’s 32-year-old brother Girish, a British resident from Wembley, had travelled with his wife, their three-year-old son and infant daughter to meet his ailing mum in Diu, India.
They were on that fateful flight back to the UK: the Air India flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, which went down just 32 seconds after take off on 12 June.
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The Boeing aircraft, with 230 passengers and 12 crew members, crashed into a hostel block of the BJ Medical college, just about a mile from the runway.
A total of 241 people on board were killed, while a further 19 people died on the ground.
There were 53 UK citizens on the plane and only one miraculously survived: 39-year-old Vishwas Kumar Ramesh.
‘We want justice’
Nehal says her family’s world has been crushed, as her brother supported the family financially by paying the rent and for their mother’s medication.
Two garlanded frames of the young couple and their children take centre place in her small home. Nehal’s mother is bedridden and has fallen into depression.
Nehal says: “Whatever happened to us must not happen to any other family. And those responsible must accept their mistake. We want justice.”
She is among 90 Indian and British families who have consented to US law firm Beasley Allen to represent them in American courts. It is gathering evidence regarding the root cause of the crash and is prepared to take legal action.
‘We’re going to fight for the truth’
Trupti Soni lost her brother, his wife, and sister-in-law. She wants an independent investigation to uncover any “technical snag, design faults” or other issues may have contributed to the disaster.
“Our loss is massive – nothing can reverse the loss of our dear ones. I feel the truth must come out,” she says.
Her brother Swapnil was travelling to the UK for work, and also to welcome the eldest brother who was driving from Ahmedabad to London – a lifelong dream.
“We’re going to fight for the truth and whoever fights for the truth, God is with them,” Trupti says.
‘No one should suffer what we have been through’
Harsad is another who is grieving, having lost his parents Devji Lacmane and Vanita in the crash.
“We definitely want justice; we want to know whose fault caused the crash. Thousands of aircraft are in the skies – are they safe? No one should suffer what our family has been through.”
Fourteen of those who died in the crash had their roots in Diu – a tiny sliver of land on the Gujarat coast. Survivor Vishwas Kumar Ramesh is also from here.
Diu, a former Portuguese colony, was liberated in 1961, its residents offered citizenship of Portugal. Many took it and then made their way to Britain.
With just over 50,000 people, almost everyone here has been touched by this tragedy.
At night, a gathering of families of the crash came to pay their last respects. Vishwas was there for the rituals of his younger brother Ajay, who was sitting beside him on that fateful flight.
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Questions unanswered
The preliminary investigative report into the crash threw up more questions than answers.
It indicated pilot error, and the cutting off of fuel to the engines. It also said there were no safety recommendations to the makers of the aircraft, which led to a backlash from the pilot community.
Mike Andrews, the principal attorney of Beasley Allen, told Sky News: “I think it is more likely at this point that it is a technological or an electrical issue rather than human error.
“But anyone who speculates too far either way is doing so without all the necessary evidence.
“That data that is needed is contained within the flight data recorder.”
Sky News has approached Boeing for comment and has not received a response yet.
Read more:
Plane suffered ‘no mechanical fault’ before crash
Anger growing as Air India families wait for relatives’ remains
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Citing published directives on the plane’s airworthiness from Federal Aviation Authority bulletins, and Boeing documents available online, Mr Andrews said the 787 “apparently has issues with leaks in water lines” which feed the front and rear restrooms, toilets, and kitchen areas.
Those leaks can affect areas in which electrical and computer equipment are housed, he said, adding: “Anyone who’s ever had an iPhone which gets wet understands that electronics and water typically don’t mix very well.”
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Mr Andrews drew attention to what’s known as the TCMA, or throttle control malfunction accommodation.
It is “essentially a safety system that looks at the speed of the engine relative to the position of the throttle and determines if the engine is overspeeding while the plane is on the ground”, he explained.
“It has the ability to shut off or control the engines autonomously if it makes that decision in its logic or sensors. So obviously if it becomes wet, and you develop an electrical short, you have a short in this system.
“The issue is we know there are various computer systems on the 787 which can call for uncommanded inputs or controls to the plane. We are very concerned that could lead to the sort of problem we see here.”
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Investigations are ongoing, and a final report is due in a year’s time.
But families want answers and so far, they have none – in one of the deadliest aviation disasters India has seen.
