It has been a year since India witnessed its worst plane crash – the London-bound Air India flight that went down shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport.
As families of the 260 victims continue to mourn the great loss, a boy in Gujarat who is not related to anyone who died, is still haunted by what he saw and was accidentally captured by.
Aryan Asare, an 18-year-old from Gujarat’s Aravalli district, unwittingly played a major role in showing the world what happened to AI-171 in its final moments. While he was pulling out his phone hoping to record a stunning clip of a plane flying, he ended up snapping photos of its doom.
The disaster seems to have scarred Aryan for life, who is still not ready to board the plane.
How “Plane Boy” accidentally caught the crash
Aryan, who is now known as ‘Plane Boy’, was in Ahmedabad to visit his father, Majan Asare, a retired army soldier, on June 12, 2025, the fateful day the plane crashed. When he stood on the balcony of his father’s house in Meganagar, he saw a plane flying low and thought of capturing the scene.
“I went to Ahmedabad for the first time and saw a plane from a close distance. I took out my mobile phone and started recording because I wanted to show it to my friends in the village,” Aryan recalled during an interaction with news agency PTI.
He added: “Suddenly, the plane started to descend and then collided with a huge fireball. I felt terrified. I never imagined that something like this would happen before my eyes.”
On June 15, three days after the fatal crash, Aryan said he thought the plane would land because the airport was nearby.
“Another plane might crash if you register.”
The experience affected Aryan so much that he now believes another plane would crash if he recorded its flight. He admitted, “After that incident, I stopped photographing planes on my mobile phone. Now I’m afraid that if I record a plane, it might crash too.” He even wants to travel abroad one day, but says he doesn’t have the courage to get on a plane.
On this day last year, Aryan traveled to Ahmedabad from his native village in Meghraj taluka so that his father could help him get textbooks after getting admission in Class XII. He has now finished his exams and is preparing to enter college.
Read also: One year after the Air India crash that killed 260 people: No cause, no closure
His video quickly caused a sensation, both on social media and TV channels that invited him for interviews, and in his village, where he is now popular as “Airplane Boy.”
“When I returned to my village, everyone wanted to watch the video,” he said with a shy smile. “My friends told me that I had become famous.” “I recently went to a wedding and a lot of people came up to me asking: ‘Are you the same plane boy?’ I told them yes, Ariane said.
The AI-171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed just 32 seconds after take-off on June 12, 2025. The tragedy left 260 people dead, with 229 passengers and 12 crew members on board, along with 19 people on the ground.
