19 hours ago
From Green Corridors to help from RJs: How Ahmedabad Police handled the aftermath of plane crash
When the news of the Ahmedabad plane crash came in on Thursday afternoon, senior brass of the city police was at the police headquarters, located just a short distance from the crash site. The occasion was a crime conference during which periodic performance review is carried out.
On learning about the plane crash, the officers promptly reached the site and set in motion a swift rescue operation.
'The first thing to do was manage the traffic at various points around the crash site so that a green corridor could be set up for ambulances, fire brigades and NDRF and SDRF teams to reach the spot as fast as they could. Later, green corridors were set up between the crash site and the hospital as well,' said an officer.
The officer said that as soon as they received the first distress call from a citizen at 1.42 pm, the senior officers rushed to the spot.
'We then set up a separate helpline so that our phone networks are not jammed. Next, we have a WhatsApp group with 129 radio jockeys (RJs) on which we put audio notes giving instructions to the people on which roads to avoid,' the officer said.
'In order to ensure rumours were not spread through social media, our cyber crime teams, too, were trawling the web. Later, under powers under the National Disaster Management Authority Act, the Commissioner allowed partial autopsy so that post mortems didn't have to be performed on all bodies,' the officer added. 'Such provisions are there in case of events like natural disasters where a large number of people have died,' the officer said.
The officer said that later, two companies of SRPF — around 300 personnel — and 500 officers from the Ahmedabad police were present to cordon off the crash site as officials from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB) came to investigate the crash along with officials from Boeing and British aviation investigators.
'As per international rules, governments of countries whose nationals have died in a plane crash can offer to investigate it. While the British aviation investigators are here, Portugal and Canada did not offer to probe,' the officer quoted above said. The flight had 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian.
The officer said that currently, the force is stretched, especially in securing the site where they now have 150 persons at a time in three shifts. However, they will soon have to be on the ground again during the Rath Yatra that begins on June 27.
'Last time, over 20,000 policemen were needed to ensure the Yatra took place smoothly. This time around too, we will seek manpower from other districts for the Yatra,' the officer said.
