Compensation from Ahmedabad plane crash secures home for grieving family

Weeks before the horrific Ahmedabad plane crash shattered countless lives in June this year, local filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala made a solemn vow to his ailing father that he would buy the family their own home and clear their mounting debts.

The Jirawala family feels that the compensation of Rs 1.29 crore received from Air India, parent company Tata Group and the Gujarat Government, had allowed them to clear all debts and purchase a home, fulfilling a promise that Mahesh had made just before the tragedy.

“...I am happy that even after his death, my son ensured dignity for his family because I am not able to work any more due to my health,” an emotional Girdharbhai Jirawala, 61, told PTI here.

Mahesh was one of the 19 people killed on the ground when Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8, to London, crashed into a medical hostel complex near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here on June 12. The crash claimed 260 lives including 241 of the 242 people on board.

The financial compensation received by the family after Mahesh’s death became the unexpected means to fulfil the very promise that had been cut short.

Mahesh, 34, was passing from a road near the hostel in Meghani Nagar area when the plane crashed and burst into flames.

When the tragedy struck, his father Girdharbhai, who is now retired, was resting on a bed at their rented house in Naroda as he had suffered a heart attack nearly two weeks prior to that.

“I was a worker at a diamond polishing unit. When I suffered a heart attack nearly two weeks before the air crash, Mahesh asked me to retire and stay at home. Mahesh promised me that he will clear the debt and buy our own house before Diwali as he was expecting high income from his recent works,” he said.

At the time of the incident, the Jirawala family, comprising six members, used to live at a rented house in the Naroda area of the city. Mahesh, his wife Hetal, Girdharbhai and his wife along with Mahesh’s younger brother Kartik and his five-year-old daughter were part of the family.

Mahesh had married Hetal just three months before the tragedy struck, said Girdharbhai, adding that Kartik had divorced his wife some time before that.

Following the incident, both Air India and its parent firm Tata Group disbursed Rs 1.25 crore to the Jirawala family. In addition, the state government paid Rs 4 lakh to Hetal as widow’s compensation.

“From Rs 1.29 crore we received, Hetal took Rs 54 lakh and went to her parents’ house. From the Rs 75 lakh left with us, I cleared the debt of Rs 15 lakh and bought a house for Rs 45 lakh, fulfilling my son’s wish. I spent Rs 10 lakh on furniture and kept Rs 5 lakh aside for Kartik’s daughter,” Girdharbhai said.

He added that Mahesh had planned to legally adopt Kartik’s daughter when she turned six years of age.

“Now, I am left with nothing out of that Rs 75 lakh, but I am happy that even after his death, Mahesh ensured dignity for the family because I am not able to work any more due to my health, and we are dependent on Kartik’s income of Rs 20,000 per month at present,” he said.