When One Flight Took A Father From His Daughters And A Son From His Father

Add as a preferred source on Google

On June 12, 2025, an Air India Dreamliner lifted off from Ahmedabad. It never reached London. The crash of AI171 took over 200 lives and left just one survivor. Among the deceased were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and Arjun Patoliya-two men with different journeys, but a shared thread: the people they loved and planned to return to.

Their stories now sit in the silence of this Father's Day-cut short, but deeply present.

The Pilot Who Was Ready To Step Away

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal had spent decades in the sky. He was 56, respected in aviation circles, and known by those close to him as someone who flew with care. But just days before the crash, he'd made a decision. He told his father he was ready to leave flying behind to come home and be there for him.

He didn't get the chance.

Sabharwal lived in Mumbai with his father, Pushkaraj, a retired DGCA official. The plan was simple: finish his current assignments, then start a new chapter on the ground. After decades of flying others to safety, he wanted to return to the one person who needed him now.

"When his father heard the news, he couldn't speak," a family friend said. "He had just been told his son was planning to come home for good."

The Father Heading Home, The Son Flying Out

For Kanchan Patoliya, the day unfolded with its own heartbreak. She was returning to Surat after seeing off her son Arjun at Ahmedabad airport. He was flying to London to be with his two daughters, Riya and Kiya, aged 8 and 4. Just eighteen days earlier, he had cremated his wife, Bharti, who had died of cancer.

But before she reached home, a phone call changed everything. Her nephew told her to get off the train. There had been a crash. Arjun's plane.

Arjun had planned to return to London, resume work, and bring some normalcy back into his daughters' lives. He never made it. Now, the girls have lost both parents-one to illness, the other to a flight that never completed its course.

Picking Up The Pieces, One Step At A Time

In the days after the crash, Kanchan gave a DNA sample at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Her younger son, Gopal, flew in from London. The family is now discussing where the girls will live, who will raise them, and how to rebuild something around the wreckage.

Gopal, who moved to London in 2023 and runs a furniture business with his late brother, may take over custody. He and his wife have no children. Kanchan, who managed a shop for years after her husband died, says she's ready to relocate if that's what it takes.

Photo Credit: https://www.instagram.com/telugu_swaggers/

There's no perfect answer. No plan that fully makes up for what's been lost. But in small steps-funeral arrangements, school transitions, legal paperwork, love continues to show up in whatever ways it still can.

Lives Built On Everyday Decisions

This Father's Day came with grief, not reunion. A day many set aside for calls, memories, and small gestures turned into something no family is ever prepared for.

Sumeet Sabharwal and Arjun Patoliya weren't men people recognised in passing but they took their roles seriously, one of a son and the other of a husband and a father. Not for recognition, but because it mattered to them.

Sabharwal was planning to leave behind his career because his father needed him. Arjun had just said goodbye to his wife and was on his way back to his daughters, determined to keep life moving for them.

Photo Credit: @OfficialJoel4_(X or Twitter))

Their stories didn't go viral until they were gone. But the way they lived with a clear sense of who they were responsible for is what will carry forward now.

A Day That Now Means Something Else

For most, Father's Day comes and goes. For others, it now marks the moment everything changed. These two families had two different journeys, both forever changed by the AI171 crash, just days before this significant day.

In these homes, Father's day won't look like what the calendars promised. There won't be gifts or old photos shared on social media. But there will be memory. There will be choices made in honour of what these men stood for. And there will be children left behind, yes but surrounded by people doing their best to stand in the gap.

Some stories don't have closure. Only continuations. This is one of them.