No pressure on families of crash victims to accept compensation: Air India

An FSL team examines the tail of an Air India Ahmedabad-London AI-171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner Aircraft that crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12, 2025. | Photo credit: The Hindu

Two days before the first anniversary of the Air India Ahmedabad crash on 12 June 2025, Air India responded to a letter from the daughter of former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who lost his life in the crash, accusing the airline of waiving its legal rights and accepting interim compensation.

In its letter to Radhica Rupani, a copy of which was reviewed by The Hindu, Air India denied pressuring any family or individual to accept full and final compensation within the stipulated time frame.

“Our offer of final compensation has not set any timetable for acceptance. The families are completely free to wait for the investigation report to be released, as some have chosen to do,” the airline said in its letter to the former chief minister’s daughter. A final investigation report into the crash is awaited and the government is expected to release an interim report on the first anniversary of the crash.

Earlier, Radhika Rupani had written to Tata Sons chief N. Chandrasekaran, accusing the airline of asking families to “waive current and future claims” while receiving interim compensation. A total of 269 lives were lost in the crash, including 243 passengers on board as well as those who lost their lives on the ground when the plane crashed on the grounds of the medical school’s residential facility. Air India said it had paid interim compensation to address the immediate financial needs of the affected families while a more detailed process of assessing final compensation claims continued.

The airline said advance payments of ₹25,000 (around £21,000) had been made to 96% of the families of the deceased, with the remaining cases ongoing largely due to incomplete documentation. In addition, 94% of those injured at the scene received either interim compensation or a one-time full and final settlement, depending on the extent of their injuries and potential loss of livelihood.

Separately, the AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust established by the Tata Group has announced an ex gratia assistance of ₹ 1 crore for the families of those who lost their lives in the accident. According to Air India, these payments have been made to 91% of the eligible families, with most of the remaining cases awaiting completion of documentation and other procedural requirements.

Items returned

The airline said it had cataloged and preserved more than 22,000 personal items recovered from the crash site, working with an outside specialist to document and return the items to families. Of the items associated with the 187 deceased passengers, items belonging to 139 were returned in India and the United Kingdom. The remaining cases largely involve incomplete documentation or families refusing to accept the items. The airline also recovered 25 digital devices, all of which passed mandatory screening by Indian authorities, with 16 subsequently returned to families.

Published – 10 Jun 2026 22:06 IST