When Melbourne resident Manan Sheth answered a call from his father on the evening of his birthday, neither knew it would be their final conversation.
Hours later, Dr Himanshu Sheth, an anaesthetist travelling to London for work, was among 241 passengers and crew killed when Air India flight 171 crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, a major city in western India.
The tragedy carried an additional layer of heartbreak.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into the campus of the same institution where Himanshu had trained as a young medical student decades earlier.
As the anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Manan and his wife Hetal Sheth are remembering the father, doctor and mentor they lost, the legacy he left behind and the questions that remain unanswered following the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade.
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One year on: What investigators know so far
On 12 June 2025, Air India flight 171 departed Ahmedabad for London's Gatwick Airport carrying 230 passengers, 10 cabin crew and two pilots.
Less than a minute after take-off, the aircraft crashed into the hostel and canteen building of BJ Medical College, around 1.5km from the runway.
The disaster claimed the lives of 241 people on board. Only one passenger survived — British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh , whose escape from the wreckage stunned investigators and observers alike. Nineteen people on the ground were also killed, bringing the total number of lives lost to 260.
The official cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
A preliminary report released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) last year found that fuel to the aircraft's engines was cut off shortly before the crash. The report did not assign blame or reach a conclusion on whether the disaster was caused by technical failure, human error, maintenance issues or broader systemic factors.
Indian authorities were expected to release a more detailed report on the first anniversary as investigators continue to examine the circumstances that led to the crash. However, the report is likely to be delayed, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.
According to media reports, India's civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, said earlier this year that the investigation was in its final stage and could even be completed within a month.
"However, the investigation is being done by the AAIB, and we don't interfere in it. We are giving them all the resources they need," he said in May.
Emphasising the need for transparency, Naidu said the final report would be subject to international scrutiny because the flight was also carrying 61 foreign nationals.
The preliminary report did not say how the switches could have flipped to the cutoff position during the flight. Source: Bloomberg / Getty Images For families like the Sheths, the findings cannot change what happened. But one year on, many are still hoping they will help explain why.
The last phone call
For Manan, who lives with his wife and two daughters in Melbourne's western suburb of Rockbank, the memories of 12 June 2025 begin not with news alerts or television coverage, but with a phone call from his father.
It was Manan's birthday and Himanshu had called to wish him well before beginning his journey to London.
Manan Sheth (right) lost his father in a plane crash last year. Source: SBS News / Vatsal Patel Like countless conversations they had shared over the years, it was routine and familiar.
"My father called me to wish me for my birthday. He said, 'I just called you to wish you before I board the plane. Enjoy your day. I will call you tomorrow once I reach London,'" the 45-year-old tells SBS Gujarati.
Neither could have imagined it would be the last time they would speak.
Hours later, as the family was preparing to go out for a birthday dinner, reports emerged that an Air India flight bound for London had crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad.
Initially, the family struggled to believe what they were hearing.
But as details slowly became clearer, Manan and his family were confronted with a reality they struggled to comprehend: Himanshu had been on board.
"We had just spoken to him, we thought it might be a minor incident and that he would simply take another flight," he says.
When we saw the news on television and images of a massive fireball, and people were taken to the hospital, we realised that it was a huge disaster.
In the chaotic hours that followed, information was scarce and often conflicting. Families across India, the United Kingdom and around the world searched for updates, clinging to hope as authorities worked to establish who had survived.
"Even then, we searched desperately for signs of survivors, hoping to find our father's name among those taken to the hospital," Hetal tells SBS Gujarati.
She says that hope faded a…
Read the full article at SBS News →
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