"Horrible sight to witness": Local recounts AI-171 crash scene
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], June 13 (ANI): A local resident of Meghani Nagar in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, who lives close to the site where Air India flight-171 crashed, recounted the horror and described the devastation and horror following the tragic incident.
Speaking to ANI, he termed the incident a 'horrible sight' to witness, stating that there were half-cut and completely burnt bodies all over the area.
A local who resides near the AI-171 crash site said, 'My son was there... He called me and told about the plane crash incident. My house is located 100-200m away from the crash site. The fire was still burning when I arrived... In 5-7 minutes, fire department, CISF and authorities reached at the spot. It was a horrible sight to witness. There were half-cut and completely burnt bodies all over the area... Meghaninagar has active roads. The situation of local commuters is still not known...'
Another local said, 'My house is 700m away from the crash site. We got to know that a massive fire had broken out...I reached the spot and I saw that the police, the fire department and a lot of local people, including workers of the BJP, have also come there...It was a very horrible scene, as everywhere there were bodies, completely burnt bodies.'
Meanwhile, Thakur Ravi, who works as a cook at the undergraduate mess of BJ Medical College, where AI-171 had crashed into, said his mother and two-year-old daughter have been missing since the Air India plane crashed into the college complex a day ago.
Thakur Ravi, his mother, and her wife used to cook at the UG students' mess at the BJ Medical in Meghaninagar.
'In this accident, my mother, Sarlaben Pralhadji Thakur, and my two-year-old daughter, Adyaravi Thakur, are still missing after the plane crash. 'My mother, my wife, and I used to cook at the UG students' mess,' he told media persons.
Meanwhile, Gujarat ATS has recovered a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) from the debris of the Air India plane that crashed yesterday in Ahmedabad.
An ATS personnel said, 'It's a DVR, which we have recovered from the debris. The FSL team will come here soon.'
The AI-171 Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 aeroplane bound for London's Gatwick had crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday. The airlines said only one out of the 242 people on board the aircraft survived the crash.
The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours.
According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls made by ATC.
Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter. An official said heavy black smoke was coming from the accident site.
A formal investigation has been launched by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the deadly crash of Air India flight 171 that killed 241 people onboard, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu confirmed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and met with Vishwashkumar Ramesh.
Before arriving at the hospital, PM Modi inspected the plane crash site and took stock of the ground situation. He also held a review meeting with the officials at the airport in Ahmedabad. (ANI)
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