Air India on Wednesday clarified that the families of the victims of the AI-171 plane crash are under no obligation to accept the airline’s final compensation offer within any specific time frame, in response to concerns raised by Radhika Mishra, daughter of former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who died in the crash.
“There is absolutely no deadline or pressure on any family or individual to accept our offer within a specific time frame,” the airline said in a statement, seen by HT.
“This is why our final compensation offer does not specify any timeline for acceptance. Families are completely free to wait for the investigation report, as some have chosen to do,” Air India said.
The clarification comes after allegations that the airline was forcing families to waive their legal rights in order to receive final compensation. However, Air India stressed that it has sought to ensure that relatives do not feel forced to choose between immediate financial assistance and waiting for the outcome of the accident investigation.
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The airline indicated that the investigation is being conducted independently by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), and it has no information about when the final report will be issued.
“However, it should also be noted that the investigation is being conducted independently by the AAIB and hence Air India is not aware of when the report will be released,” the statement read.
Explaining its decision to begin the compensation process before publishing the results of the investigation, Air India said it had received numerous requests from families and believed it would be unfair to delay payments indefinitely for those who wish to come forward.
“As such, we began the final compensation process in October 2025, once most of the interim compensation payments had been completed, by sending claim forms to families. Since then we have been in dialogue with those families who wish to engage with us,” the airline said.
“Similarly, we sought to ensure that there was absolutely no reason for families to feel pressured to choose between immediate financial support and waiting for the investigation report,” she added.
(With inputs from Neha L.M. Tripathi)
