A tale of two mothers: In Ahmedabad Plane Crash, instinct saved one, missed call haunts another

On the afternoon of June 12, Air India’s London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (Flight AI171) took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and crashed just minutes later, killing over 270 people, including 241 on board and several on the ground.

As the plane plummeted into the campus of B J Medical College in Meghaninagar, the tragedy left behind a trail of fire, ash, and unanswered phone calls, ripping apart families and shaking the nation.

Saved by a Mother's Tears

What was meant to be a routine journey back to the United Kingdom turned into a narrow escape from tragedy for 27-year-old Yaman Vyas, a warehouse worker who had returned to India for a brief visit.

As reported by The Times of India, on the day of his departure, with passport and luggage in hand, Vyas made a quick stop at his family home to seek his parents’ blessings before heading to the airport. But a moment at his mother’s feet changed everything.

Overcome with emotion, she urged him to stay a little longer. Moved by her plea, Vyas cancelled his ticket, just hours before the flight he was scheduled to board crashed. “I didn’t think twice,” he later said. “Something in her voice told me to listen.”

The seat he was assigned was among those destroyed. Vyas remained unharmed by mere distance, perhaps, but not by chance. As many have noted since, it may have been a mother’s instinct that spared him.

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A Missed Call, a Mother Lost

While one mother’s tears saved a son, another family was left shattered. Chirag Patel missed a 4 am call from his 79-year-old mother, Manju Mahesh Patel, who boarded Flight AI171 soon after. She had been seated in 12D, just a row behind the one lone survivor of the ill-fated flight, and never made it back.

There were no last words, just silence and a memory. Chirag never got to say goodbye.

Identities, Investigations, and Answers Awaited

As the nation mourns, efforts to uncover the truth are underway. Both the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder black boxes have been recovered as of this morning, offering a clearer path toward understanding what caused the crash.

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In the wreckage of AI171, stories like Yaman’s remind us of the fragile threads that hold life together. A mother’s intuition became her son’s shield. A missed phone call became a family’s wound. The tragedy has raised many questions, but also revealed the profound power of a mother’s voice, whether it comes in a whisper or in tears.