70 tolas of gold, ₹80,000 cash – What first responder found at Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad
Air India Plane Crash: On June 12, local residents became the first responders when an Air India flight came down crashing at a hostel for medical students in Ahmedabad and immediately blew up in flames, in one of the worst plane crashes of India.
The crumpled fuselage of the AI171 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft gave rise to flames that refused to go out, even with the piercing screams of passengers and residents of the BJ Medical College hostel.
But the flames were so intense that it prevented Raju Patel, a businessman in the construction field who ran to the scene without thinking, from entering the actual scene of the accident.
As per a report by The Times of India, Patel and his crew responded to the accident within five minutes of the Air India plane crash.
"For the first 15 to 20 minutes, we could barely get close. The fire was too intense," Patel was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
He said that his team could only help when the fire brigade and the ambulance arrived, and they did not waste time to jump into action.
'But once the first fire brigade and 108 ambulances arrived, we jumped in to help.'
'We did what we could,' Patel, whose team was there at the site till 9 pm, told the newspaper.
As more disaster management personnel got deployed at the Air India crash site on June 12, Patel's team did what came next – searching through the wreckage.
While combing through the area, the businessman's team found countless baggage burned and scattered around the area.
Not only this, Patel found about 70 tolas (around 800 grams) of gold, ₹ 80,000 in cash, a Bhagwad Gita and some passports. All of their findings were handed over to the authorities, as per the TOI report.
Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi announced on Sunday that all the retrieved items will be identified and sent to the next of kin of the victims.
'I'm just grateful we could do something,' Patel was quoted as saying by TOI.
Patel also has a history of volunteering during the Ahmedabad serial blasts, but said he will never forget the Air India plane crash.
'I was just 100m from the civil hospital when a bomb went off. But the destruction here... the flames... I will never forget this,' he said.
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