It was a horrific, heart-wrenching site with plane wreckage, rancid smell all around me. Charred bodies were being taken out by health and relief workers.
I was barely 5 km away from the site where the Air India plane AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London crashed, claiming the lives of 242 passengers and crew. There are reports of just one survivor. Though I reached the site within 20 minutes of the news being public, police, fire brigade and ambulances had already reached the place.
A charred scooter at the crash site
The plane crashed over the hostel buildings of BJ Medical College Hostel in Meghani Nagar, Ahmedabad, killing not only the passengers but also students and some of their family members residing inside. The final death toll is still not known. Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was also on the London-bound plane and was killed in the crash.
The injured were taken to Civil Hospital, at Asarwa, near the crash site.
The whole wreckage was spread around an area of around 200-300 metres. I could count at least four hostel block buildings that have been completely damaged and burnt due to the crash. Charred bodies, including that of a child, were being carried out from one of those buildings.
Onlookers around the damaged wing of the medical college building
One part of plane had fallen on the hostel mess, damaging the building.
The heat around the area due to the burning plane wreckage, buildings and bodies was so high that mobile phones stopped working. One ambulance driver said that he alone had taken almost 100-120 bodies.
How this author's phone stopped working at the site
Along with human bodies, animal carcasses could be seen lying everywhere. There were open suitcases, half-burnt clothes, and one broken wing of the ill-fated aircraft could be seen at the BJ Hostel premises.
Government officials and political party leaders made a beeline to the site. For the first one hour after the crash, there were large number of onlookers. It was only after NDRF arrived that the area of crash was cordoned off.
(The author is Contributing Editor, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
