A year after the Air India crash in Ahmedabad, attention is once again turning to what caused one of India’s worst aviation disasters. Investigators dissect technical failures, examine cockpit decisions and scrutinise maintenance records. Those questions matter. But they are not the only questions that matter. Modern societies have become adept at investigating disasters and remarkably poor at remembering their human aftermath.

The public conversation around major tragedies usually follows a familiar pattern. There is shock, saturation coverage, official inquiries and demands for accountability. Then, gradually, attention shifts elsewhere. New crises emerge. New headlines compete for space. Yet for those who survive, and for families who lose loved ones, the event does not move into the past. It becomes part of everyday life. This is particularly true in disasters that claim victims beyond their intended sphere. Far less attention is paid to those on the ground who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. An aircraft is expected to carry risk for those who board it.

Yet the crash also killed 19 people on the ground, a fact that has largely faded from public memory.........

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