Ahmedabad Air India Crash: Filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala confirmed dead after DNA test
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Ahmedabad Air India Crash: Filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala confirmed dead after DNA test")
Mahesh Jirawala Photograph: (X)
Days after the devastating Air India crash in Ahmedabad that claimed over 270 lives, it has been officially confirmed that Gujarati filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala was among the deceased.
Days after the devastating Air India crash in Ahmedabad that claimed over 270 lives, it has been officially confirmed that Gujarati filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala was among the deceased. DNA testing helped authorities identify his remains, bringing closure to a days-long search following the incident. The tragedy occurred on Thursday, June 12, 2025, when Air India flight AI-171, en route to London, crashed into a residential area in Meghani Nagar shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport at 1:38 p.m. Mahesh had been missing since the crash, and authorities had been working to identify those killed both onboard and on the ground.
The police report
According to police and forensic teams, Jirawala’s phone was last traced to an area near the crash site, and his mobile location data placed him close to the accident moments before it happened. A burnt two-wheeler found at the site was later identified as belonging to the filmmaker using the vehicle’s chassis and engine numbers.
Family's account
According to a report by PTI, Mahesh’s wife Hetal recounted that he last called her minutes before the incident.
"My husband called me at 1.14 pm to tell me his meeting is over and that he is on his way home. However, when he did not return, I called up on his phone but it was switched off. After police was intimated, the last location of his mobile phone showed he was 700 metres away from the crash site," she said.
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"His phone got switched off around 1:40 pm (a minute after the ill-fated flight took off). His scooter and mobile phone are missing. All this is unusual since he would never use that route (as per the last location) to come home. We have submitted DNA samples to check if he was one of those killed on the ground due to the crash," she added.
Authorities have now handed over Mahesh Jirawala’s remains to his family after a positive DNA match. He is survived by his wife, Hetal and their two children.
