On ground, Ahmedabad medical college hostel bore brunt of Air India plane crash
Scores of students were having lunch at the mess of the BJ Medical College hostel when a part of the London-bound Air India plane carrying 242 people hit the building after crashing minutes after taking off from the nearby Ahmedabad airport.
Ayush, a resident doctor at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, said the crash sparked chaos at the college in Meghani Nagar. 'Our friends and juniors have been seriously injured and are being treated at the Civil Hospital now,' said Ayush.
Resident students said the mess caters to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) resident doctors from nearby hostels. 'Since the Civil Hospital is close by, there are multiple hostels around the area where both UG and PG students stay,' said Dr Dhruvit, a PG student.
Dhruvit said the crash coincided with the lunch timings between 12:30 and 2:30pm. '...UG students from nearby hostels go there. When the incident occurred, there were around 150–200 people inside the mess, including resident doctors and mess workers.'
A third resident doctor said a large number of students and mess staff were injured. 'Those who have been injured have suffered both burns and other serious injuries,' said the third doctor.
He added that they were getting panic calls from families and friends.
The medical college authorities did not immediately provide any confirmation about the casualties.
The plane headed for Gatwick Airport crashed in a residential area near the airport. A portion of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was perched atop the hostel building. Visuals showed the plane taking off and fire rising into the sky seconds later over a residential area. Thick black smoke rose into the sky from the plane debris on fire
The plane took off at 1.39pm and gave a 'Mayday' call, signalling an emergency. There was no response from the aircraft thereafter. The crash prompted the suspension of flight operations from the Ahmedabad Airport.
It is the first such crash in India since 2020 when an Air India Express plane overshot a tabletop runway at Kerala's Kozhikode, skidded off the runway, plunged into a valley nose-first, leaving 21 passengers dead.
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