Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran in an exclusive interview with Times Now Group Editor-in-Chief Navika Kumar.
“It is an extremely difficult situation where I have no words to express to console any one of them. I just deeply regret this accident happened in a TATA-owned airline. And, I feel very sorry, and all we can do is to be with them at this time. We grieve with them and we do everything we can,” he said.
The tragic crash took place on June 12 when Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed into buildings at the BJ Medical College campus shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. The aircraft, bound for London, burst into flames on impact, killing 241 passengers and crew on board, as well as 29 people on the ground. One passenger survived the disaster.
“I think it is the most horrific story that you can ever hear. It is such a heart-wrenching situation. It is a very difficult to console anyone who has lost a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a son…it is very difficult to console. Whatever you may say, it cannot be sufficient enough to console them from this loss. So, all I can say is that, I grieve with them as much as they do and when I say this, I mean it for me and all my Tata colleagues. We just want to console them as part of the Tata family for life,” he added.
Watch full interview here:
The Chairman also said that he has so far only met the lone survivor and plans to visit as many families as possible himself.
“Between me and my colleagues, we intend to visit all the families. But now currently our job is to help the families to come to Ahmedabad, collect the remains and provide them some brief counselling and then all the way to the final rites.
Currently that is what we are doing. We have one Tata colleague as an angel deployed to work with each family. And there are 400 Tata people across companies in Ahmedabad. And what we are trying to do is to be with each of these families in the next few days to get through this stage. Then we need to meet them. We need to support them. We need to see what we can do and what we need to do,” he told Times Now.
