The following video of a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has attracted a lot of attention on social media. It shows a detailed depiction of the crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner into a residential building, clearly intended to depict the fatal crash of Air India Flight 171.
The passenger flight crashed into the hostel block of a medical college in Ahmedabad five months ago, killing the entire crew, all but one of the 230 passengers and 19 people on the ground. We are still waiting for the final report from the Indian AAIB; In July I wrote about what we know so far from the preliminary report, which makes clear that the fuel supply to the engines was cut off immediately after takeoff.
The display was created as decoration for a Hindu festival celebrating Durga, the Mother Goddess: the goddess of power, strength and protection and one of the most important goddesses in Hinduism. Durga Puja, the festival honoring her, takes place for ten days in Ashvin (September-October) and is considered the most important festival of the year for Bengali Hindus, especially in West Bengal. It is traditional to design elaborate temporary structures, known as puja pandals, to worship Durga.
This puja pandal was created in Chakpur. The installation shows a large plane with its tail and Air India logo visible, crashing into a residential building with simulated flames and flickering lights. A toy plane attached to a rope glides towards the pandal and produces a bright flash when it hits the building.
According an article in PaliparanAlthough pandals are famous for their elaborate designs and creative themes, images of the plane crash-themed pandal have sparked outrage across India.
However, The Indian Express wrote That the airplane pandals were a big hit among devotees and relatives of the victims, and the organizers said that the pandal has to be kept open till 2 am due to the large number of people who want to see it.
Designed on the theme of the Air India plane crash on June 12 in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar, the Ganesh Yuva Mitra Mandal pandal pays homage to the victims of the crash and ‘salutes’ the frontline warriors, including officials of the fire department, 108 emergency services and the police department, besides highlighting the role of media.
Beneath a black tent (the color that signifies mourning) and against the backdrop of a huge cutout of the charred BJ Medical College hostel building, stand clay statues of Ganesha and his vaahan mushaka. They are dressed as firefighters and 108 emergency personnel.
[…]
The pandal is a hit among locals as well as people from outside Ahmedabad. “We have devotees from Rajkot and other cities. There are also relatives of the accident victims who visit the pandal. The queue is unmanageable during the night,” said Hardik Patel, 32, a volunteer.
Redditor maygamer96 posted the video on r/ATBGEwhat does it mean Horrible taste but great execution.for anything that displays quality craftsmanship in the least elegant way possible. Maygamer96 offered some context.
Durga Puja/Navratri is a ten-day festival celebrated by Hindu communities in India just before the onset of winter, the former particularly in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.
During the last 4 days of the festival (beginning on Shoshthi (sixth day) and ending on Bijoya Dashami (literally “tenth victorious day”)), eastern Indian communities across India will establish pandalsor temporary festive areas housing an idol of goddess Durga, mainly in her avatar of Kali, the destroyer of the demon Mahishasura.
A recent trend among the committees that organize these pandals is to compete for the most artistically opulent pandal, and often the pandals are themed around both historical and contemporary themes of Bengali/Assamese society or Indian Country in general. This often results in an impressive collection of artistic structures in cities like Kolkata.
This one, however, is from Chakpur village in Jangipada district, and represents the freak accident that was the Air India 171 crash in Ahmedabad a few months ago, where a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after take-off. So yeah, lousy flavor… but great execution.
Mountain-Ad-460, an immigrant who has lived in India for ten years, offers additional information about the festival:
Many things happen in Kolkata during Durga Puja that would be unacceptable during any other part of the year. Like Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai, things happen during that festival that would not otherwise be tolerated.
It is part of the reason why many different communities choose to isolate themselves in one way, through colonies/societies, that are “only” for the members of their community. Because people of Maharashtra want a great Ganesh Chaturthi program even if they live outside Mumbai. Just like Bangali people want a big durga festival even outside Kolkata. To this end, they can have their big celebration within their own society or neighborhood, without disturbing others with their programs that can sometimes last until 4 in the morning.
It is traditional for puja pandals to depict modern events, including disasters and controversial issues. In previous years, the installations have recreated fatal events, including the catastrophic flood in Kerala in 2018 that caused 483 deaths, the suicide attack in Pulwama in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the violence in Manipur that killed more than 200 people and displaced more than 50,000 people to relief camps.
In fact, there was another pandal focusing on the crash of Air India Flight 171 as part of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Ahmedabad, where the plane crashed. India today reports showing the aftermath of the accident, with fire crews attempting to respond to the wreckage and Lord Ganesha in the background. This festival and pandal took place more than a month ago and received much less attention.
There is another reference to a pandal in Nagpur that recreated the accident; however, I couldn’t even find a video of that one.
That said, I can’t imagine Air India will be pleased by these images associated with its livery.
