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A 1988 jet crash, 133 deaths and an unending struggle

The Indian Airlines Boeing 737 Flight IC-113 that was carrying the Patel family among 129 passengers crashed on its final approach to Ahmedabad

Published on: Aug 07, 2025 05:36 AM IST
By Maulik Pathak
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On October 19, 1988, Pankesh Patel and his family were eagerly waiting to receive his younger brother Rakesh and his wife Bhavna, a US citizen. The couple had gone to Mumbai to attend the famous garba festivities at Mithibai College.

PREMIUMThe co-pilot’s mother grieves her son after the crash in 1988. (HT Archive)
The co-pilot’s mother grieves her son after the crash in 1988. (HT Archive)

“After the wedding, they were coming home for the first time. The college was famous for garba competition and my brother and bhabhi were skilled at garba, hoping to win a prize,” said Patel, now a retired bank employee.

That

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak

He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.

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