Lunch plates abandoned, plane parts embedded in walls after Air India jet hit doctors’ hostel
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AHMEDABAD, India - Lunch break at a doctors’ hostel in India’s Ahmedabad turned fatal for many when parts of an Air India aircraft crashed through the roof of its dining area
Only one passenger survived the crash
As many as 24 people on the ground were also killed, according to local media.
A day after the tragedy, Mr Thakur Ravi, who worked in the kitchen at the B.J. Medical College hostel, is still searching for his mother – a cook there – and his two-year-old daughter, whom he left under her care.
The last time he saw them was before he set off to deliver lunch boxes to senior doctors at the hospital, about half an hour before the crash.
“All the other ladies who cook food at the hostel managed to escape, but my mother and daughter got left inside... I have searched everywhere but have not found them,” he told reporters on June 13.
At least four undergraduate students and five relatives of students were killed in the crash, a resident doctor, who is part of the junior doctors’ association at the college, told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.
Images of the dining area shortly after the incident showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, while debris and belongings of the students, including clothes and books, lay scattered on the floor.
Steel tumblers and plates still containing some food lay on the few tables that were left intact, with a section of the aircraft that was partially wedged on top of the damaged building, giving an indication of the devastation inside.
A strong stench of jet fuel hung in the air at the site on June 13, as the authorities used cranes to remove charred trees and debris, while a portion of the wall of the top floor of the hostel lay on the ground.
Loud wails could be heard at the home of Mr Akash, a resident of Ahmedabad who was charred to death as he rushed to save his mother who ran a tea stall near the hostel and was caught in the blaze of the crash. His mother managed to escape.
“Her son ran in to save her but got blinded by the smoke and... was completely burnt. He died in front of our eyes,” Mr Akash’s aunt, Ms Jasi, told Reuters, adding that his mother suffered burn injuries and was undergoing treatment. REUTERS
