Family of teen tea seller killed in crash denied entry to home

AHMEDABAD: The family of 13-year-old Akash Dantani, who died in Thursday's plane crash near the IGP office campus in Meghaninagar, is struggling to return to their home. Akash, along with his 16-year-old brother, ran a tea stall to support their family after the death of their father during the Covid pandemic. Akash died in the crash. His family now says they are not being allowed to enter their own neighbourhood.His grandmother, Babi Patni, stood near the barricade outside the crash zone and said, "My kid died yesterday. What was his fault? He was selling tea on a roadside stall to feed our family. Now these policemen have barricaded the area and we are not allowed to pass this barricade. We want to live peacefully in our own house. Why are these cops stopping us?"Babi said she was staying at a roadside temple for two days. Akash's mother and elder brother have been sitting outside the postmortem room at Civil Hospital, where his body remains are kept. The family says they received no support.Akash was one of the many killed when a Boeing 787 aircraft crashed minutes after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday. The plane broke into parts. The nose hit the Atulyam residential buildings, the middle section hit a garden and road, and the tail crashed into a mess building. The crash caused a fire that spread across the area, fed by jet fuel. Akash, who was selling tea outside, got caught in the flames.His cousin Anil said, "I went home to get lunch for him. I heard the blast and ran back. But there were just pieces left of him."