On April 9, nearly nine months after the tragic crash of Air India flight AI-171, 28-year-old Mohammadmiya Sethwala received an email from the UK Home Office. The email rejected his application to stay in the UK. The authorities gave him ‘immigration bail’ until April 22 so he could leave the country and return to India, according to a report by The Indian Express.
Still struggling to cope with the grief of losing his wife Sadiqa and their little daughter Fatima, Sethwala – who is from Vadodara – is now hoping a local court in the UK will help him. His solicitor is preparing to file an application to cancel the bail order, the report mentioned.
Sethwala says that if the court grants this relief, he will be able to apply for a fresh visa. He had moved to the UK in 2022 on a dependent visa along with his wife Sadiqa, who had come there to study International Business Management.
In April 2025, just two months before the tragedy struck on June 12, Sadiqa and Sethwala had shifted to Rugby town in England. Sadiqa had found a job there and was expecting to get her work permit after three months of probation, as per the report.
Neighbours funded couple’s UK dream
Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from London, Sethwala said, “Sadiqa and I hail from financially weak backgrounds… Our families had no money to sponsor our shift to the UK but our neighbours had pooled in money for our UK dreams… When she completed her course and landed a job in Rugby, she was put on a three-month probation to receive the work permit. Meanwhile, she had also managed to get a job for me as well and we had begun imagining our life ahead, where we would repay our neighbours and settle down in the UK… I did not know that fate had other plans…”
Within a month of starting her new job, Sadiqa applied for leave to visit Vadodara with their daughter Fatima to attend the wedding of Sethwala’s younger brother. “We wanted to travel together but since I was also working in the same place, the manager refused to grant simultaneous leave to both of us… Sadiqa went ahead with Fatima. The tickets on the ill-fated flight had been pre-booked,” IE quoted him as saying.
When he heard about the air crash, Sethwala rushed to India after resigning from his job, as required by his employer. After several days of waiting, the bodies of Sadiqa and Fatima were handed over to him and the family in Vadodara.
“I returned to the UK at the end of June… I could not stay back (in Vadodara) much as the family reminded me of Sadiqa and Fatima. But when I returned to our house here, I had a breakdown. Just months ago, the apartment had been loud… filled with the scent of my wife and daughter, the sound of nursery rhymes… their clothes and belongings were all over. I could not sleep at night due to depression,” he said. He added that at the urging of his friends, he consulted a private psychiatrist and later moved to London, where Sadiqa’s cousins and his friends have been taking care of him.
“I attempted to reapply for a visa and find new employment that could process my work visa… But nothing materialised and my dependent visa expired in January… The solicitor told me that I do not fit into the bereaved spouse category and this is a rare event where a plane crash has killed a resident UK visa holder…” he told the news outlet.
Air India job offer could not materialise
Sethwala added that Air India had also contacted him and offered him a job at the Taj Group of Hotels in London, but he had to turn it down because his visa was expiring in January.
Sethwala, who had cleared the foundation course for Company Secretary and was working in taxation before the couple moved to the UK, said, “It was Sadiqa’s dream to build a better life that brought us here… She had completed her CA foundation course back there and we had a bright future… Now that she is gone, I must repay those kind neighbours, who had helped us in need.”
With no “closure” in sight, Sethwala feels that living alone in the UK is the best option for him. He says, “Returning to India will constantly remind me of Sadiqa and Fatima, whenever I see my family, the children in the house… Sadiqa’s mother, who is my maternal aunt. The manner in which I lost them… did not get to see them one last time… I don’t even know if I will have a closure when the investigation report is out. We are waiting for the truth. Being in the UK with my cousins and friends will help me focus on work and life ahead…”
The Boeing 787-8, which was flying from Ahmedabad to London, crashed just minutes after take-off on June 12, 2025. It hit a medical college hostel building and burst into flames. The crash killed 260 people — 241 passengers and crew members, and 19 people on the ground.