We laid mattresses to save lives, recalls MBBS student from Rajkot
Ahmedabad: On June 12, when the Air India 171 plane crashed into the Atulyam hostel complex in Meghaninagar, it didn't just rip through concrete and steel — it froze time, and left behind stories of courage, chaos, and quiet miracles.
For 20-year-old Parth Solanki, a first-year MBBS student from Rajkot, it was supposed to be just another lunch break. Seated in the mess hall with 25 of his hostel mates, the son of a imitation jewellery worker never imagined his world would be turned upside down in the blink of an eye.
"The wall behind me shook... then came this deafening sound. The entire hall exploded into dust, screams, and darkness," Parth recalls.
Flames blocked the mess from one side — where a gas cylinders had caught fire — while the other side was buried in wreckage from the fallen aircraft and debris of damaged building. "We were trapped. Everything went silent for a moment — then came the panic."
As the smoke thinned, Parth and a few senior students stumbled toward the staircase, clearing a narrow path through broken furniture and twisted metal. "We found a way out.
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Somehow, we made it out... just minutes before another portion of the ceiling gave in," he said.
But the nightmare wasn't over. From the courtyard, the students could hear desperate cries from the upper floors where some of their friends were still stuck as plane wreckage blocked the exit. "There was no time to wait," Parth said. "We just started shouting names, trying to find who was where, making sure no one was alone."
They grabbed mattresses from nearby hostel rooms, carried them on shoulders and scooters, and rushed to place them under the mess windows. They then asked their friends to jump on the mattresses. And their friends jumped onto the makeshift cushions, into safety. "Some landed hard, some were bruised. But they lived," said Parth."We did what we had to. If we hadn't, I don't know if we would be here."
"It feels like a miracle. Somehow, in the middle of flames, metal, screams, and smoke we made it out alive," he said, still shaken by the incident.
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