AI-171 flight crash: Some leave scarred campus, others wait
Images of the dining area shortly after the crash showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, while debris and belongings of the students, including clothes and books, lay strewn on the floor
A day after the world’s worst air tragedy in a decade scarred BJ Medical College, an eerie silence engulfed the campus of Gujarat’s oldest medical college. The hostel complex was shut, exams were postponed, and survivors of the crash — students, professors, staff, and family members — were seen walking out of the campus with luggage in tow.
The compound bore the brunt of the AI-171 crash on Thursday afternoon as parts of the jet rammed into a dining hall. Some other buildings, tall dark grey structures with a modern façade, bore visible damage. Smoke stains scarred parts of the exterior, while several upper-floor windows were shattered. Scorched trees lined the area, their branches blackened from the fireball that followed the crash.
“I went to the Swami Narayan temple at night and had my meal there. By around midnight, my father reached Ahmedabad and took me back to our home in Rajkot. There are many like me, who have returned home for the time being,” said Harsh Chotaliya, a 19-year-old second year medical student.
Second-year resident doctor Tarun, who bore visible injuries, said he had to jump from his balcony because of the fireball. “That’s how I survived. We are not going home right now. We will go wherever we get an accommodation... We did not even have the essentials with us. We got an opportunity to get our things from inside, so that’s what we are doing for now...”
Assistant professor Piyush recounted his narrow escape. “I escaped from the building and then jumped over the boundary wall in front. That’s how I got a sprain. If I had waited for 15-20 seconds inside more, I would have died of suffocation or asphyxiation... Many people lived inside with their families,” he said.
Not everyone was as lucky. Ravi Thakor was a picture of agony and pain as he went about trying to trace his mother and daughter, who were at the BJ Medical College hostel mess at the time of the incident. “My mother, wife and I work at the BJ Medical College mess. Junior doctors come here to have their lunch, while food for senior doctors is packed and taken to the civil hospital as part of a tiffin service. At 1pm on Thursday, we packed food and went to the hospital, while my mother and my daughter were in the mess,” a distraught Thakor told reporters.
His father, him and his wife were out as part of the tiffin service, the toddler was left with the grandmother. “At the time of the crash, my mother Sarla and daughter Aadya were in the mess. It has been 24 hours but I have not got any clue about what has happened to them,” he said.
Images of the dining area shortly after the crash showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, while debris and belongings of the students, including clothes and books, lay strewn on the floor. Steel tumblers and plates still containing some food lay on the few tables that were left intact. A strong stench of jet fuel hung in the air as authorities used cranes to remove charred trees and debris.
On Friday, senior postgraduate students said they were roped in to help in collecting blood samples for DNA examination and blood donation drives. “We have been told to have our meals at the college campus of the postgraduate students. Our mess on the first and the second floor is completely damaged. Many of our friends are in hospital with injuries to their hands. Our college authorities confirmed that the second year preliminary exam has been postponed until further notice,” said Kishan Valaki, a second year student.
Authorities sealed parts of the hostel complex. Nearly 50 resident doctors who lived about a 200m from the mess said they lost their houses and valuables. The cars parked in the parking space behind their houses, too, were charred. Dr Chetan Dharaiya, a faculty member who was until last month the chief warden of the hostel, said the doctors and their families were shifted to the nearby Lions Club and other empty quarters in another part of the medical college. “There were empty staff quarters where the resident doctors have been shifted,” he said.
Relatives continued to mourn the dead. A resident of Jigsouli village in Gwalior district, first-year medical student Aryan Rajput died in the hostel. Rajput, 22, had prepared for the NEET exam in his village. Aryan’s brother Bhikam Singh said, “He was very good in studies and had scored 700 marks in the NEET exam. He had come to the village just a month ago and it was his dream to become a big doctor and serve the people.”
“I am going to have lunch,” was the last call made by 20-year-old MBBS student Jaiprakash Choudhary, a resident of Rajasthan’s Barmer district, to his family at about 1.30pm on Thursday.
Jaiprakash, a second-year medical student at BJ Medical College, was inside the mess when the crash occurred. His body was one of the eight handed over by the authorities to the family on Friday. He suffered serious burns and nearly 30% of his body was charred.
Mangalaram said Jaiprakash’s father Dharmaram, a farmer and daily wage labourer, had taken loans to educate his son. At around 1:20 pm on Thursday, Jaiprakash was studying in the library when one of his friends invited him to go outside to buy mangoes. Jaiprakash declined, saying he was heading to the mess for lunch. “If he had gone to buy mangoes, he might still be alive,” his cousin Mangalaram said.
