2 days ago
‘He had finished lunch, was washing hands when plane crashed into hostel': 2nd-year medical student's life cut short
Jaiprakash Chaudhary was a person of many firsts. Son of a labourer and a second-year medical student at BJ Medical College and Hospital, he was the first of his family to go to college and, if he had lived, would have been the first doctor in his remote Barmer village of Bor Charanan – something that his family would advertise proudly.
But the 20-year-old's life was tragically cut short when the London-bound B787 Boeing Dreamliner Air India flight carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel soon after it took off Thursday afternoon. The crash killed 241 of 242 passengers and crew on board and five people at the hostel, four medical students, and a doctor's wife – all of them in the hostel's second floor mess at the time of the crash.
Of these, 12 people – 11 on board the plane and Jayprakash – are from Rajasthan.
According to a family member, Jaiprakash had spoken to them just before he went for lunch. He got into the government medical college after scoring 686 out of 720 in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) two years ago.
He is survived by his father, mother and younger school-going sibling.
'From what we were told, Jaiprakash had finished his lunch and was washing his hands when the plane crashed into the hostel building. The flames after the crash and the weight of debris both killed him. Initial reports said he had 30 percent burns in his body,' the family member said.
As his family brought his body back to the village Friday, several officials — including Barmer district collector Tina Dabi — came down to pay their respects.
But Jayprakash wasn't the only young life that was lost in the crash. In Udaipur's Saheli Nagar, the house of marble businessman Sanjiv Modi has plunged into deep mourning after both of his children –son Shubh, 25 and daughter Shagun, 23 – died in the crash. The two were on their way to London for a vacation.
As they wait for the siblings' bodies to be identified and brought home, the family is inconsolable, Satish Bhandari, a relative, said.
'They were going to London for a vacation. Subh had done chemical engineering from London and he was going to visit some of his friends. The sister decided to tag along,' he said.
In a video that went viral soon after her death, 22-year-old Khushboo Rajpurohit from Balotra district in Rajasthan is seen weeping as she parts with her family. Married only a few months, Khusboo was going to London to join her husband Vipul Singh, who works there.
The heartbreaking video shows Khushboo hugging every female member of her family as she bids them farewell.
'Her father had gone to Ahmedabad to drop her,' Thank Singh, a relative, told The Indian Express. 'He was on his way back when he heard the news of the crash.'
Devastated, the family is now in Ahmedabad waiting for the body to be identified. Meanwhile, her husband Vipul is expected to arrive Saturday.
'DNA samples have been given to the hospital for identification. Once that's done, we'll bring the body for the funeral. In only a few days, we went from joy to mourning,' he said.
