The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash into a residential building, clearly meant 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 all of the crew, all but one of the 230 passengers and 19 people on the ground. We’re 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 it clear that the fuel had been cut off to the engines directly after take-off.

The display was created as a decoration for a Hindu festival which celebrates Durga the Mother Goddess: the goddess of power, strength and protection and one of the most important goddesses in Hinduism. Durga Puja, the festival which honors her, takes place over 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 venerate Durga.

This puja pandal was created in Chakpur. The installation shows a large plane with the Air India tail and logo visible, crashed into a residential building with simulated flames and flickering lights. A toy aeroplane attached to a rope glides towards the pandal, with a bright flash as it hits the building.

According to an article in Paliparan, although pandals are celebrated for their elaborate designs and creative themes, the footage of the plane crash-themed pandal has sparked outrage across India.

However, The Indian Express wrote that the aircraft pandals were a big hit among devotees and victims’ kin, with the organisers saying that the pandal must be kept open until 2am because of the high number of people wanting to see it.

 Designed on the theme of the June 12 Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar, the pandal by Ganesh Yuva Mitra Mandal pays tribute to the victims of the crash and “salutes” the frontline warriors, including officials of the fire department, 108 emergency services, police department, besides highlighting the role of media.

Under a black tent — the colour signifying mourning — and against the backdrop of a huge cutout of the charred hostel building of BJ Medical College, stands clay statues of Ganesha and his vaahan mushaka. They are dressed as firefighters, and 108 emergency staff members.

[…]

 The pandal is a hit among the locals as well as people from outside Ahmedabad. “We have devotees from Rajkot and other cities. There are family members of the crash victims visiting the pandal as well. The queue is unmanageable during the night,” Hardik Patel, 32, a volunteer said.

Redditor maygamer96 posted the video to  r/ATBGE, which stands for Awful Taste but Great Execution, for everything 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 right before the onset of winter, the former particularly by the east Indian states of West Bengal, Assam & Tripura.

For the last 4 days of the festival (starting at Shoshthi (6th day) and ending on Bijoya Dashami (lit. “Victorious 10th day”)), east Indian communities settled all across India will set up pandals, or temporary festive areas housing an idol of the Goddess Durga – primarily in her avatar of Kali, the destroyer of the demon Mahishasura.

A recent trend among the committees that organise these pandals is to compete for the most artistically opulent pandal – and often pandals are themed around both historic and contemporary themes in Bengali/Assamese society or the larger Indian country. This usually makes for a breathtaking collection of artistic structures across cities such as Kolkata.

This one however is from the village of Chakpur in Jangipada district, and depicts the freak accident that was the Air India 171 crash in Ahmedabad some months ago, where a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after takeoff. So yeah, awful taste….but great execution.

Mountain-Ad-460, an immigrant who has lived in India for ten years, offers some additional information on the festival:

 In Kolkata, a lot of things happen during Durga Puja that would be unacceptable during another part of the year. Same like Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai, things happen during that festival that would otherwise not be tolerated.

 It’s part of the reason why many different Communities choose to self isolate themselves in a way, by means of colonies/societies, that are “only” for members of their community. Because people from Maharashtra want a big Ganesh Chaturthi program, even if they live outside of Mumbai. Just like Bangali people want a big durga festival, even outside of Kolkata. To this effect, they can have their big celebration inside of their own society, neighbourhood, without disturbing others with their programs that can run until 4 in the morning on occasions.

It is traditional for the puja pandals to depict modern events, including disasters and controversial subjects. In previous years, installations have recreated fatal events, including the catastrophic flooding in Kerala in 2018 leading to 483 deaths, the suicide bombing in Pulwama in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the violence in Manipur which has killed over 200 and displaced over 50,000 people into relief camps.

In fact, there was another pandal centered around the crash of Air India flight 171 as a part of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Ahmedabad, where the aircraft crashed. India Today reports that it shows the aftermath of the crash, with fire crews attempting to respond to the wreckage and Lord Ganesha in the background. This festival and pandal took place over a month ago and received much less attention.

There’s a further reference to a pandal in Nagpur which recreated the crash; however I couldn’t even find a video of that one.

That said, I can’t imagine that Air India is pleased for this imagery associated with their livery.