From Ahmedabad’s crash site, stories of horror, panic and a narrow escape

Keyur Anatomy, 27, a second-year postgraduate resident doctor at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, was on duty when he heard a loud noise and thick black smoke rising into the sky outside the window. Within minutes, the phones of Anatomy and his colleagues started ringing.

Anatomy said it took them some time to figure out that a London-bound Air India plane carrying 242 people had crashed nearby minutes after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport. "I was at the civil hospital on duty when I looked outside the window and saw black smoke. Within seconds, our phones...started to ring. It took me another two to three minutes to understand what had happened," said Anatomy.

Anatomy said the plane crashed into and severely damaged four buildings on their campus, including an undergraduate (UG) hostel mess and quarters of the superspeciality doctors who live there with their families.

Anatomy rushed to the crash site around a km away and started putting the injured into ambulances. "The first person I helped get out of the superspeciality doctors' quarters was a young woman who had sustained severe burn injuries. Before we could take her to the hospital, she succumbed in the ambulance. Many others sustained serious burn injuries and are currently receiving treatment at the hospital."

Scores of students were having lunch at the mess of the BJ Medical College hostel mess when the plane crashed.

Rohan Bagade, an intern at the hospital, said luck saved him as he left the mess shortly before the crash. "If I had stayed in the mess for maybe another 15 minutes, I would have been one of the many injured. I had just finished my lunch and came back to my hostel. That is when I heard a loud bang, like a blast. I rushed outside and saw the sky filled with black smoke, and the rest is now public knowledge."

Ayush, another resident doctor at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, said the crash sparked chaos at the mess in Meghani Nagar. "Our friends and juniors have been seriously injured and are being treated at the Civil Hospital now," said Ayush.

Dr Dhruvit, a PG student, said since the civil hospital is close by, there are multiple hostels around the area. He added that the crash coincided with the lunch timings between 12:30 and 2:30pm. "...UG students from nearby hostels go there. When the incident occurred, around 150–200 people were inside the mess, including resident doctors and mess workers."

A fourth doctor said students and mess staff were injured. "Those who have been injured have suffered both burns and other serious injuries." He added that they were getting panic calls from families and friends.

The medical college authorities did not immediately provide any confirmation about the casualties.

The plane headed for Gatwick Airport crashed in a populated area near the airport. A portion of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was perched atop the medical college hostel building. Visuals showed the plane taking off and fire rising into the sky seconds later over a residential area.

It is the first such crash in India since 2020 when an Air India Express plane overshot a tabletop runway at Kerala's Kozhikode, skidded off the runway, plunged into a valley nose-first, leaving 21 passengers dead.