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Time of India
21 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
When plane crashes into doctors' hostel mess: Bengaluru man turns to the Bhagavad Gita for answers about Ahmedabad tragedy
The devastating airplane crash that took place in Ahmedabad has plunged the entire country into sorrow and disbelief. As the reality of this unimaginable event continues to sink in, people across platforms are voicing their thoughts on the unpredictability of existence. However, the victim toll was, sadly, not limited to the residents in the plane. Tragedy Strikes as Dreamliner Crashes into Medical Campus in Ahmedabad What was meant to be a routine transcontinental journey turned into an unimaginable catastrophe. AI-171, a Boeing Dreamliner scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Gatwick, met with disaster shortly after takeoff. Scheduled to depart from Terminal 2 at 1:10 pm, the flight began its ascent from Runway No. 23 at approximately 1:39 pm. The aircraft, a 787-8 model and the first of its kind to ever crash, was expected to complete the 9-hour, 22-minute journey to the UK—but it never made it past the skies of Gujarat. Just moments after liftoff, the Dreamliner veered off course and plunged into Atulyam-4, a residential complex that houses super-specialist doctors, as well as the nearby mess hall for undergraduate and postgraduate students at one of Gujarat's premier government medical institutions. The crash site, stretching over half a kilometer, became a scene of chaos and horror. Emergency responders worked tirelessly, combing through shattered debris and scorched structures. As the search intensified, it became increasingly evident that the chances of finding survivors were slim. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo The wreckage was particularly grim. The aircraft's fuselage came to rest atop the doctor's housing block, while its tail section became wedged into the medical college's mess facility. At the time of the crash, the mess was still occupied—though, in a stroke of eerie luck, a large number of medical professionals had finished lunch and dispersed just moments earlier. Dr. Tushar Patel, a specialist in internal medicine who was at the scene, told the Times Of India, that the death toll could have been drastically higher had the crash occurred only minutes earlier. According to him, the timing of the impact inadvertently spared dozens of lives, especially among young doctors and students who had just exited the building. As per a Hindustan Times report, Dr. Minakshi Parikh told reporters that four MBBS students had died. A doctor's wife also lost her life. Bengaluru Reddit User Asks People To Seek Solace In The Gita A user from Bengaluru shared a heartfelt reflection online, highlighting how fleeting and fragile life truly is. Their perspective offered a grim look at how routine moments can suddenly become fatal—whether it's embarking on a holiday only to become a victim of terrorism, joining a public celebration that turns deadly, boarding a plane for work or leisure that ends in disaster, or simply having a meal when tragedy strikes out of the sky. The underlying message was clear—none of the individuals lost in these events foresaw such an end. Their days began like any other, yet fate dealt them a completely unforeseen hand. Among the many responses, one person pointed out the harsh truth that sometimes people collapse from heart failure without any sign of illness. Another user echoed a similar sentiment, noting how those who perished—both onboard the plane and on the ground—started their morning like any other, unaware it would be their last. No warning, no goodbye—just a cruel and sudden turn of events. A particularly heart-wrenching comment recalled the death of a young woman who was struck by lightning while retrieving clothes from the terrace. Moments earlier, she had been playing a traditional board game with her family and promised to return in half a minute. She never did. The cruelty of fate left everyone stunned. The commenter went on to reflect how randomness often defines who stays and who goes. Even millions of newborns pass away in their first month of life due to entirely preventable issues like poor hygiene or malnutrition—souls who had no chance to even create karma, good or bad. Amid all this grief, some tried to find perspective. A few suggested that in times of darkness, it's important to keep looking for light. Even when no comfort is visible, the effort to stay hopeful must persist. Life is about celebrating joys—yours and others'—and pressing forward despite knowing that pain is inevitable. Spiritual wisdom also found a place in the discussion. Some drew strength from ancient texts like the Bhagavad Gita, emphasizing how surrendering to the unknown and focusing on present actions offers peace. The tragic event reminded many that while we can prepare and plan, the final call isn't ours. The story of the one person who survived the crash by using an emergency exit served as a chilling yet hopeful reminder—if it's not your time, life finds a way.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- General
- Hindustan Times
Jet rams into medical college hostel, 5 killed
It was lunch time at the BJ Medical College hostel in Ahmedabad's Meghaninagar area. The MBBS students – many between 18 and 22 – shuffled into the mess-cum-dining hall of the five-storey building around 1.30pm. Living in a building that is just 3km from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, the students were used to the roar of jets. But Thursday was different. At 1.39pm, an AI-171 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner rammed into the white concrete building, turning the sky orange as it burst into a fireball. Disoriented students struggled to outrun the cloud of black soot and the tall flames, the floor a mess of broken glass, twisted metal, and food buried in ash. 'I was having food with my friends when I heard a loud blast like a crash. Next, I realised that the roof had collapsed and I lay buried underneath. My eyes were closed and I was having difficulty breathing. I thought I would become unconscious but I did not. After about half an hour, I saw that people were moving the debris over me and soon I was rescued,' said a second year MBBS student. The tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabilizer fins still attached to it was lodged near the top of the BJ Medical College building. 'While four MBBS students living in the hostel died, 19 were injured. Five of them are serious. Two third-year students are untraceable,' college dean Minakshi Parikh told reporters. 'A doctor's wife was also killed while two relatives of other doctors were injured. Three members of a doctor's family went missing after the incident. All other doctors and relatives are safe,' said Parikh. Dhaval Gameti, president of the resident doctors' association, BJ Medical College, said around 50-60 people were injured in all, and 4-5 relatives of super specialty resident doctors were also unaccounted for. The entire compound, on which the six buildings of the medical college stood, were hit by the Dreamliner. Four of these buildings were hostels. As night fell, the incident site resembled a war zone. Closer to the hostel buildings, the whiff of burnt aviation turbine fuel was more than evident. The trees within the compound turned black from the fire. At one spot next to the building, one of the trees fell and smoke continued to billow out of its core. On the terrace of one of the smaller buildings, the overhead water tank was precariously perched on one of the two engines of the ill-fated aircraft. At the compound's main gate, what resembles the plane's emergency door, was partially buried among the boundary wall's rubble. Surrounding the emergency door were numerous rings which might have been part of the fuselage. Amid all these remnants of the devastation were hundreds of people — first responders, rescuers, police personnel and ordinary people. Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed. 'My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries,' she said. An official at the Asarwa Civil Hospital said that there were 50-60 students whose condition was stable while there were three others who were being treated in the ICU. 'About 4-5 students are missing and they could have not survived the crash,' he added. Amisha Patel, a 25-year-old worker employee in the pharmacy department of the Civil Hospital, said she visited the hostel along with her friend to have lunch. 'Suddenly there was a crash. The area was fully covered with smoke. I panicked and jumped from the third floor. I have sustained multiple fractures including one in my left leg,' said Patel. She said that while her friend managed to escape unhurt using the staircase, many other students who were eating at the mess were injured. 'The plane was flying very low before it crashed,' eyewitness Haresh Shah told PTI. 'As it crashed into the building, the sound was like a blast, and the plane and the building caught fire,' he said. Local residents were the first to reach the site and try to save the passengers as well as those in the building. Initial footage shot by residents on mobile phones showed charred bodies among the debris. 'The plane crashed in the dining hall of the hostel where people were present. Many of them were injured and taken to hospital,' said another eye-witness, requesting anonymity. Red and blue emergency lights flashed as Indian Army and NDRF teams, in yellow vests, searched the rubble. Asarwa Civil Hospital, meters away, had its 1,200-bed Women and Children Hospital spared. Sparks from rescue tools glowed against the gray, charred ruins of collapsed roofs.
Straits Times
a day ago
- General
- Straits Times
Air India crash: Medical students were eating lunch when plane hit their dining hall
The medical students in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad were eating lunch on June 12 when an Air India passenger plane crashed into their dining hall. PHOTO: EPA-EFE Follow our live coverage here. AHMEDABAD - The medical students in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad were eating lunch on June 12 when an Air India passenger plane crashed into their dining hall. 'We only heard a blast,' said Mr Mohit Chavda, an intern who was halfway through his meal of lentils, cabbage and bread when the disaster struck. 'Then we just saw the dust and smoke coming inside with force.' In the aftermath of India's worst aviation disaster in decades, the ripped-off tail of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner could be seen jutting out of the building, as firefighters quelled the flames. In the dining hall, lunch plates were left half-finished. While police officials have put the death toll from the crash at 269 people, they have cautioned that a final figure will take time to ascertain. Many of the bodies are charred and are being identified and counted through DNA testing. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew aboard the jet, which was headed to London, are confirmed dead, the airline said. Rescue personnel at the site, as well as doctors and security officials, suggested that at least three dozen other people had been killed on the ground. Among the dead were at least four medical students, said Dr Minakshi Parikh, the dean of B.J. Medical College, whose campus is near the end of the airport runway. Dozens of others are being treated at the city's main hospital. 'Most of the students escaped, but 10 or 12 were trapped in the fire,' Dr Parikh said. Verified video shows the plane descending, almost as if on a glide, and then a fireball rising in its place. Photos and verified videos from the crash site show widespread carnage and medical workers carrying the bodies of victims into ambulances. Images emerging from the scene show a blackened tangle of wreckage. The aircraft appears to have broken into large pieces, with one wing lying on a roadway. Firefighters could be seen spraying down burned-out buildings and sooty, cracked trees as they stepped carefully around hunks of debris. Dr Bharat Ahir, who reached the scene soon after the crash, said he feared that casualties in a nearby residential complex, a multi-storey block where doctors and their families live, could outnumber those at the dining facility. 'The plane's back part is stuck in the dining hall, and the front hit the residential building,' he said. Mr Chavda, the intern, said the building's proximity to the airport means residents are used to high-intensity noise, particularly from air force engines. So at first they thought it might just be a plane flying too low. Then it went dark. 'We didn't know what to do – it was like our brains stopped working,' he said. 'We just got up and started running. We couldn't see anything, but there is muscle memory: We knew which way the exit was.' Only after they escaped did they grasp what happened. 'We only realised that there had been a plane crash once we got downstairs and saw the airplane's tail,' Mr Chavda said. He said he had immediately feared that the residential complex, separated from the dining hall by just a narrow road, had sustained worse damage. 'The fourth floor walls were broken,' he said. 'The doctors were at the hospital on duty, and their families were in the building. There are many casualties among them.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- General
- Business Insider
At least 200 people were killed after a London-bound Air India Boeing 787 crashed into a medical college
An Air India flight bound for London with 242 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning. The city's police commissioner, G.S. Malik, said that one survivor was found in the aircraft and was now "under treatment," the Financial Times reported. More than 204 bodies had been recovered, he told the BBC. Data from Flightradar24 showed the Boeing 787 Dreamliner reaching an altitude of 625 feet before the signal ended. Flight 171 crashed into a medical college about a mile south of the runway. Minakshi Parikh, the dean of the college, said at least five of its students were killed after the plane hit a dining facility during lunchtime, The New York Times reported. Images and video posted on social media showed thick black smoke rising into the sky near the city's civil hospital. A mayday call was issued, but there was no response from the cockpit to air traffic controllers, India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. There were 169 Indian citizens, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian on Flight 171, the airline said. The DGCA said there were also 10 cabin crew and two pilots on the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was leading a team of US investigators who were traveling to assist Indian authorities with an investigation into the incident. British investigators also said they were sending a team to India. The plane, registered as VT-ANB, was first delivered to Air India in January 2014. It had flown to Ahmedabad from India's capital, New Delhi, earlier in the day, and had flown to Paris, Melbourne, Frankfurt, and Tokyo in the past week. Thursday's incident is the first total loss of a 787 since the model entered service in 2011. Boeing said in a statement: "We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders, and all affected." Boeing stock fell sharply premarket and was trading 4.7% lower at $204 around an hour after markets opened. Morgan Stanley analysts said the event "derails the positive momentum on Boeing's stock," which had gained about 25% this year. Flight 171 had been due to land at London Gatwick airport at 6:25 p.m. local time. Air India's CEO, Campbell Wilson, said in a video statement that the airline's teams are "working around the clock" to support passengers, crew, their families, and investigators. He said that while he understands people want to know more information, "anything we report must be accurate and not speculative." "We owe that to everyone involved," he added. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X: "The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected." UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the situation as devastating in a statement on X, adding: "I am being kept updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time." Images appeared to show the jet's landing gear had not been retracted. Alastair Rosenschen, an aviation consultant and former British Airways pilot, told Sky News: "If the gear was still down, then that would suggest that something is untoward." The crash comes at a testing time for Air India, which has been overhauling its operations since the Tata Group acquired the formerly state-owned carrier in 2022. A year later, it ordered 470 aircraft worth $70 billion at list prices. The new jets, with much more modern seats, are a distinct upgrade from the older planes that make up the bulk of its fleet — although supply-chain constraints have hindered deliveries.
Time of India
2 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Air India plane crash: Hours before crash, a flier on the same Boeing aircraft noticed ‘unusual things'
— akku92 (@akku92) Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A passenger who claimed he flew on the same Air India aircraft just two hours before it crashed near Ahmedabad on Thursday said he noticed "unusual things" onboard."I was in the same damn flight 2 hours before it took off from AMD. I came in this from DEL-AMD. Noticed unusual things in the a video to tweet to Air India", said a person named Akash Vatsa on than 100 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from plane, which took off at 1:38 p.m. and was bound for London Gatwick Airport, crashed into a dining facility at a local medical college. At least five students died, according to Minakshi Parikh, the dean of the and photos of the crash site showed plumes of black smoke coming from the wreckage and firefighters dousing charred residential buildings. The plane's tail appeared to be hanging out of a damaged airline said the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. Injured people were being taken to hospitals, the airline said, but it was unclear whether they had been on the ground or on the plane departed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, which temporarily shut down after the crash. It had been scheduled to land in London at 6:25 p.m., London Gatwick Airport Minister Narendra Modi said the crash was "heartbreaking beyond words" in a statement on social media. "In this sad hour," he added, "my thoughts are with everyone affected by it."
