Ahmedabad Plane Crash: What was a routine morning turned into hell for Sitaben Patni, a tea stall vendor from Ahmedabad, whose life would never be the same when an Air India plane crashed just outside her tea stall on 12 June 2025. Sitaben survived miraculously—but her 14-year-old son, Akash, who was sleeping next to their small tea stall, was part of the death toll of the ghastly crash.
The Patnis had operated a small tea stall outside the doctors’ hostel of BJ Medical College. Sitaben was taking the early morning customers and Akash was sleeping nearby that morning. The air shook with a deafening roar. In seconds, debris from Air India Flight AI-171 fell crashing, engulfing everything in flames.
Though with severe burn injuries, Sitaben was rescued from the fire and taken to Civil Hospital. Her life, according to doctors, was a miracle to salvage. But at a tragic cost.
Akash, who lay beside the stall, did not stand a chance to escape. Witnesses recounted how shrapnel from the plane debris struck close to him and raging fire engulfed the area instantly. His aunt Chandaben recounted how, in tears, “One moment he was sleeping so peacefully. the next, he disappeared.”
Also Read: Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Remembering Brave Crew of Air India AI171
His body was later recovered in the mortuary a painful experience for his father, Suresh, who was compelled to go through the unthinkable exercise of retrieving his remains.
Now homeless because the crash site was closed to allow for investigation, the Patni family grieves not only the loss of their son but also their home and income. Sitaben, still recovering, often calls out for Akash, still unable to accept the fact that her boy is dead.
The crash of Air India claimed more than 240 lives, leaving blackened buildings and shattered families in its wake. Yet in the statistics, one family’s misfortune gives a human, raw face to the tragedy.
Akash’s tale reminds that behind every newspaper headline are families whose lives are irreparably altered. In Sitaben’s survival and her son’s demise is the bittersweet irony of fate—one no parent should ever have to experience.
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