AI-171 to become AI-159 to avoid 'bad memories'

Air India has decided to not operate flight number AI 171 and replace it with flight number AI 159, officials familiar with the matter said on Friday, a day after a flight by that number crashed seconds after take-off from the Ahmedabad airport killing 241 people on board.

- Neha LM Tripathi and Ateeq Shaikh

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD:

"The flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick [London] will be re-numbered to AI 159. The return flight too will be changed to AI160," an official said requesting anonymity.

"The change will start to reflect soon," the official said.

Air India officials were unavailable for comment.

On Thursday afternoon, the London-bound flight crashed seconds after taking off with 242 people, including 12 crew members, on board. While the government is yet to release official figures of casualties, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who visited the site of the crash, a medical college complex, confirmed that only one of the 242 people on board survived. Some students of the medical college were also killed in the crash.