‘I heard a loud thud and sky turned black’: Eyewitness details deadly Air India plane crash

A senior state government official confirmed that the aircraft first struck a tree before colliding with one building of the hostel complex.

The BJ Medical College hostel complex in Meghani Nagar resembled a war zone on Thursday afternoon, with first responders, including police, firemen and paramedics searching for victims among the rubble after Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner, flight AI171 to London Gatwick, went down shortly after take-off with 242 passengers on board.

People gather near the debris of the crashed Air India plane in Ahmedabad on Thursday. (PTI)

A senior state government official confirmed that the aircraft first struck a tree before colliding with one building of the hostel complex, then hitting a second , which is when it broke apart. The impact caused the roofs of both buildings to collapse, injuring several undergraduate and postgraduate medical students who were present during lunch hour. The accident happened at around 1.40 pm.

A second-year MBBS student, who sustained injuries in the incident and is currently receiving treatment at Civil Hospital, reported that more than 50 people were in the mess hall at the time of the crash.

A large section of the plane’s wing was seen lying on the road, its frame exposed and twisted. The buildings, tall dark grey structure with a modern façade, bore visible damage where the impact occurred. Part of the tail section was still jutting out of one of the buildings. Smoke stains spread across parts of the exterior, while several upper-floor windows appeared shattered. Scorched trees lined the area, their branches blackened from the fire that followed the crash. The crash happened shortly after take-off and the aircraft was fully fuelled up.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a “massive sound” followed by thick, black smoke rising from the crash site. Ashutosh Pandey, owner of Risa Air Express Office, which handles domestic cargo operations for Air India, described the scene from his nearby office: “Initially, I thought there was a terror attack, similar to the 2008 incident at Asarwa Civil Hospital. The parking lot vehicles caught fire due to the plane crash, and the residential hostel for doctors was also engulfed in flames. The entire area was filled with smoke and fire.”

MS Prajapati, 45, who lives 200 metres away from the site where flight crashed said: “I heard a loud thud. I thought it was an earthquake but when I ran outside, I saw parts of a plane and lots of smoke.”

“For the next hour, I couldn’t see anything because huge plumes of smoke had covered the area after the crash. The sky was black. My neighbours and I were among the first to rush to the college building,” said Parajapti, who works as a driver at a private firm.

Horrifying visuals of the crash show that perhaps the tail section and the landing gear of the plane hit the buildings “I can’t explain what I saw. I have never seen something like this. There were charred bodies of men, women, and children. Within minutes, the police and ambulances arrived,” he recalled.

Prajapati said that there was complete chaos on the road, with people running, some even abandoning their vehicles. “The college buildings were badly damaged. The students were being evacuated first because we suspected that the people inside the plane hadn’t survived. I’ve never seen so many bodies. After about an hour, the police asked us to return home. “

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Indian Army troops from Ahmedabad Cantonment, operating under Southern Command, were deployed within minutes to respond to the emergency. Rescue operations commenced in coordination with the civil administration, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and other first responders.

Of the 230 passengers, 169 were Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. The plane was flown by Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced captain with 8,200 flying hours, and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 hours. The crash is the worst ever accident involving a single aircraft in India.

The plane crashed near Asarwa Civil Hospital, Gujarat’s largest medical facility with over 2,800 beds. The crash site is less than 2 kms by road and less than 1 km by aerial distance from the 1,200-bed women’s hospital.

(With inputs from Jignasa Sinha )