Ahmedabad Plane Crashes: 37 years, 2 tragedies, and 1 man, now MLA, who couldn't walk away from haunting experiences of BJ Medical College
Ahmedabad has witnessed two of the deadliest air disasters in India's aviation history. And standing quietly behind the scenes of both was one man,
Dr Hasmukh Patel
, now an MLA from Amraiwadi, who once served as a young medical student.
The 1988 Crash That Shaped His Journey
As per a TOI report, back in 1988,
Indian Airlines
Flight 113 crashed near Kotarpur on its way from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. A total of 133 people lost their lives in the tragedy.
Dr Patel, then a second-year MBBS student at
BJ Medical College
, was suddenly called to help. 'There was a shortage of staff in the postmortem room,' he recalled. 'We rushed in to assist under Dr Deshmukh, who led the forensic department. There were so many bodies, and very little space, it was overwhelming.'
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That experience left a lasting mark on Patel.
A Familiar Tragedy, Decades Later
On 12 June 2025, tragedy struck again.
Air India Flight AI171
, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner headed from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick Airport, crashed shortly after take-off. The aircraft struck the BJ Medical College hostel, sparking a massive fire. The disaster claimed over 270 lives, passengers, crew, and people on the ground.
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When Dr Patel heard the news, now decades removed from his student days, he didn't hesitate. 'I rushed to Civil Hospital,' he said. 'Around seven bodies had arrived when I got there. I helped the staff put tags on the body bags.'
For Patel, the moment was deeply personal, not just for the lives lost, but for the lasting scars they have left on the city and its people. 'Both tragedies were heart-wrenching,' he said. 'Having lived through the first one as a student, this felt painfully familiar.'
'To witness such horror twice in one lifetime, and in the same city, is something I could never have imagined,' he said.
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