Bhopal: A year after the Air India crash near Ahmedabad, the relatives of Javed Ali Syed, a 38-year-old hotel manager based in London, who happened to be on that ill-fated flight home along with his wife and two kids, struggle to find answers.
Javed, an Indian origin British national, had travelled from London to Mumbai to visit his ailing mother who lives in Mumbai ahead of Eid and later boarded the Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London. What was meant to be a brief reunion turned into a tragedy that continues to define the family’s life a year later.
Javed Ali Syed, 38, his wife Mariam Ali Syed, 35, and their two children, six-year-old Amani Syed and four-year-old Zayn Syed, died in the crash.
For his brother Syed Imtiaz Ali, who lives along with his mother in Mumbai, the past year has been shaped by grief, unanswered questions and the long wait for closure.
“In many ways, it still does not feel real,” Imtiaz said. “A year has passed but there are still days when it does not feel real.”
Imtiaz was among the relatives who travelled to Ahmedabad in the days after the crash as families waited outside hospitals and government offices while authorities carried out DNA identification of victims. He spent days coordinating with officials helping navigate paperwork and verification processes as relatives gathered in uncertainty.
He was joined by his cousin, Bhopal-based trader Mueen Ullah Qureshi.
The family remained near Ahmedabad’s Sola Civil Hospital through the identification process moving between counters, help desks and hospital offices as updates came slowly. After days of verification, officials informed them that the remains would be handed over in closed caskets following DNA confirmation.
Imtiaz said those days remain the most difficult to revisit. “There was no clarity and no timeline. Everyone was just waiting,” he said.
Javed’s 70-year-old mother Farida Bano, who suffers from heart ailments, was also in Ahmedabad with other relatives during the identification process. The family gathered there from different locations trying to support one another through the waiting period.
Family members say certain moments still bring back memories of Javed, Mariam and the children, particularly during gatherings and festivals. Conversations often pause at points where his presence would have been felt most.
While investigations and official processes have continued over the past year, Imtiaz said they have offered little emotional closure for the family. “Even if answers come, they cannot replace what we have lost,” he said.
For him, the loss is not only about the day of the crash, but everything that followed -- the waiting, uncertainty and slow acceptance that life would no longer return to what it was.
The family still holds onto small memories, conversations shared over meals and moments from Javed’s visit to India that now feel heavier in hindsight.
For them, the anniversary is not just a date but a reminder of a day that reshaped several lives and left behind questions that still remain unanswered.
