'I just wanted to see a plane...': Teen who accidentally filmed Ahmedabad crash struggles with trauma
What began as an innocent wish to see an aeroplane up close has left 17-year-old Aryan Asari haunted by one of the most horrifying tragedies in Indian aviation history. The Class 12 student had no idea that the short video he took out of curiosity would capture the final moments of
Air India flight AI-171
, and change his life forever.
Aryan had just reached his father's rented house in Ahmedabad's Meghaninagar around 12:30 pm on June 12. His father, a retired Army jawan now working as a metro security guard, had moved there recently. Aryan, who had come from Shamlaji in Aravalli to buy textbooks, was told planes often flew low over the neighbourhood. So, he went to the terrace, eager to catch a glimpse.
'I had never seen a plane so close before,' he told reporters in a shaky voice. 'I took out my phone and started recording, just to show my friends. At first, everything seemed normal. Then… it just tilted and crashed. Right in front of me. And then flames… black smoke… screaming…'
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Aryan stood frozen. What he had recorded wasn't just a plane, it was 241 lives, including several on the ground, vanishing in a burst of fire. The plane had crashed into the campus of BJ medical college, barely moments after takeoff.
He couldn't move. 'I didn't know what to do. I couldn't believe what I had seen. I wanted to stop watching, but I couldn't look away. That moment… it keeps replaying in my head.'
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The video he recorded was first sent to his father, but within minutes, it was everywhere. News channels, social media, WhatsApp forwards, his footage had gone viral. Aryan became an accidental witness to a national tragedy.
The house owner, Kailashba, said Aryan had come to Ahmedabad for the first time. 'Who could have thought a schoolboy would witness such horror on his first day in the city? He was pale. He couldn't eat or speak for hours. He just sat there, shaking.'
Still traumatised, Aryan gave a statement to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch on Saturday. But the nightmares wouldn't stop. He begged his father to let him return home.
He is now back in his village, hoping to leave the horror behind and focus on his Class 12 studies. But the images, the burning aircraft, the chaos, the helpless screams, continue to haunt him.
'I just wanted to see a plane,' Aryan whispered before leaving. 'Not watch one fall from the sky.'
Inputs from PTI
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