Toy airplane, sweater, half burnt prayer page: Air India begins process to return belongings of AI-171 crash victims; 22,000 items listed

The crash happened on June 12, 2025

• Air India returns belongings from AI 171 crash victims after seven months
• 22,000 items found; 8,000 identified, rest unclaimed
• Families in Ahmedabad can collect items or choose courier delivery online.

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Air India on Monday said it has begun the process of returning personal belongings recovered from the victims of the AI 171 plane crash, nearly seven months after the accident claimed 260 lives in one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters in almost three decades.

An Air India spokesperson said that a total of 22,000 personal items were recovered, preserved and catalogued, and have now been uploaded to a dedicated digital portal. Of these, about 8,000 belongings could be matched to specific individuals and have been categorised as “associated,” while the remaining 14,000 items could not be directly linked to any passenger and are listed as “un-associated.”

“Air India is handling this process with utmost respect, dignity, and accuracy. Working closely with a qualified external partner, our teams have spent considerable time cataloguing and documenting recoverable and returnable items,” a spokesperson told news agency PTI.

“The exercise began on January 5 and will continue till mid-February. Information has been shared with the families through email and a dedicated website, and once they confirm the details, the belongings will be handed over physically in a manner that honours their grief and privacy. Several families have already collected the items which belonged to their kin,” he added.

For items classified as “associated,” Air India has contacted relatives directly through email, sharing photographs and descriptions of each recovered object. Families have been offered three choices: to decline receiving the item, to collect it in person from a facilitation centre in Ahmedabad, or to have it delivered by courier.

A separate portal has been created for the remaining 14,000 “un-associated” belongings. Families can view the listed items and choose whether to collect them in Ahmedabad or opt for courier delivery.

Among the items displayed on the portal are a toy airplane, a toy car, a wristwatch, plastic bangles, a sweater, a pair of shoes, a half burnt page from a book carrying the well known Gujarati prayer “Mangal Mandir Kholo,” handbags and other personal effects.

The belongings were recovered after Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787 8 aircraft operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical college hostel complex shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12 last year. The aircraft caught fire on impact, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard and 19 individuals on the ground.

The incident is currently under investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.