I can never step onto a plane, says teen who became key witness after recording Air India flight crash

The Hindu

11 hours ago

For 17-year-old Parth (name changed), what began as an exciting first day at his father's new accommodation turned into a traumatic experience soon. Barely an hour after reaching Saraswati Nagar — a densely populated locality just two kilometres from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport — the teenager became an unwitting eyewitness to one of India's worst aviation disasters in recent history.
Excited to see an aircraft at such a close distance, Parth, a Class 12 student, had pulled out his phone to record the sight and show it to his friends back in his native village. But within seconds, his camera captured the horrifying moment when Air India flight AI171, bound for London, plummeted from the sky and crashed in a fiery explosion. The episode has left him deeply shaken. 'I can never step onto a plane,' he said.
The teenager, a native of Shamlaji taluk in Gujarat's Aravalli district, arrived in Ahmedabad around noon on June 12. His father, who had retired from the Army, had recently started working as a security guard with the Ahmedabad Metro. Just a day earlier, on June 11, he had rented a room in a small building situated between the airport and the crash site.
'I had arrived at my father's place around 12.30 p.m. and went up to the terrace after hearing that planes often flew past. I was curious, so I started filming a video of one flying unusually low — it was the closest I had ever seen a plane. At first, I thought it was preparing to land at the far end of the airport. But within moments, it crashed and exploded into flames right in front of me. The whole scene was horrifying,' he recounted to the media.
None detained: police
The video he recorded quickly went viral, prompting the Ahmedabad Crime Branch to record his statement on Saturday as a witness. Later, the police released a brief clarification after initial reports suggested that the boy had been detained. 'He came with his father to give a statement as a witness. He was then sent away with his father. No arrests or detentions have been made,' the police said.
On Sunday morning, Kailashbhen Thakur, the landlady of the house, recounted the harrowing experience of Parth. 'He had just arrived in the city for the first time. Within an hour, he witnessed something no one should ever see,' she said. She added that the boy was deeply shaken by the experience and had decided to return to his village to resume his studies.
(The boy's identity has been withheld as he is a minor)