Amid Ahmedabad plane crash, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran urge 700 Air India employees, says, ‘we have to make sure…’

 Air India on Sunday said it is working closely with other Tata group companies to provide every possible assistance to the families and loved ones of the Ahmedabad plane crash victims.

Tata Sons and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Monday addressed Air India employees after the plane crash in Ahmedabad last week, describing the incident as the most “heartbreaking” crisis of his career and urging the team to remain determined, according to a PTI report citing sources.

Addressing close to 700 employees and the leadership team across India headquarters and Air India Training Academy in Gurugram, Chandrasekaran said the employees need to show resilience and use this incident as an act of force to build a “safer airline”.

“We have to make sure that we stay the course. Be more determined in everything we do. We need to wait for the investigation to find out,” the sources quoted Chandraseakaran as saying.

“I’ve seen a reasonable number of crises in my career, but this is the most heartbreaking one which I never thought I would see,” Chandrasekaran said, as per the sources of PTI.

The airline in a statement also said that over 400 family members have reached Ahmedabad and are being assisted by its teams on the ground.

The airline said it has established contact with the next of kin/relatives of all passengers and crew members, and added that the process of handing over the mortal remains and their personal effects to the next of kin is ongoing.

Every affected family in Ahmedabad has been assigned at least one caregiver by Air India, it said.

Air India is working closely with the authorities and will be assisting in the movement out of Gujarat, and repatriation initiatives, where appropriate, the airline said.

The airline remains fully cooperative with the ongoing investigation led by the authorities and will continue to provide updates as verified information becomes available, as per the statement.

All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8 (AI171) and another 29 persons, including five MBBS students, on the ground were killed in the plane crash on Thursday. The aircraft crashed into the campus of a medical college moments after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

(With Inputs From PTI)