Exclusive | Saw Woman's Severed Head, Witnessed Fire 'Eating People': Moments Of Horror From Ahmedabad

By Kapil Pareekh & Amey Rane

Ahmedabad: "My duty shift at the hospital starts at 2 pm, and I was going to work when the crash happened. People sat close to the building in the afternoon, as there was shade. A vendor sold tea at the spot. None survived. Fire ate them up. I was barely 50 metres from the hostel mess, and the hall was filled with screams. In five minutes, the din subsided and was followed by an eerie silence. In 25 years of my life, I have never seen such a horrific scene. I couldn't sleep last night; the gruesome scenes kept coming back."

Ahmedabad Civil Hospital staffer Vijay describes the horror he won't be able to forget for years, or ever. How can he! Imagine a massive passenger aircraft with over 200 souls onboard crashing into a residential building. Imagine thousands of litres of jet fuel, turning the place into a furnace, all in a matter of seconds, leaving little to no possibility of survival. Imagine witnessing the horrific cries barely 50 metres away.

The London-Gatwick bound Air India AI-171 flight to London, crashed on Thursday afternoon, soon after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, into a medical college complex in the Meghani Nagar area, killing 241 passengers and crew on board. One person, a British national of Indian-origin, had a miraculous escape. At least five doctors of the medical college were killed, and several others were injured.

"There were two-wheelers and four-wheelers parked in the building, and there was fire everywhere. The vehicles could catch fire at any moment. But once I went a bit ahead, I heard the doctors and residents crying for help. There was immense heat everywhere. A security guard tried to escape the flames, but could not. The parts of the plane were visible at the rear end of the building, which turned to ashes and mangled remains within 10 minutes," says Vijay, his arms crossed, still rattled by what he saw.

Vijay and others who were the first to reach the crash site said the local civic authorities had carried out an eviction drive around the medical college a fortnight back, especially close to the hostel building. "Had this unfortunate incident happened some time back, the situation would have been completely different. Casualties would have been much higher," he said.

Ramesh, another eyewitness to Thursday's Air India crash, too, has lost his sleep since he saw a severed head rolling close to his feet as fire and smoke turned the sky dark and red in a matter of seconds.

"It looked as if a movie was playing before my eyes. A massive fire nearly engulfed the whole doctors' hostel building, followed by a boom. Once the sound died, I tried to get close. Initially, I had no idea that an aircraft had crashed. As I tried to enter the building, a severed head of a female came rolling close to my feet. Once I tried to look beyond the wall of fire to figure out what exactly had happened, it was then that I saw the charred remains of several persons. It was horrific," Ramesh said.

Meghani Nagar is no less traumatised. The sight and sound of the crash still ring in the ears of Rewa Ben, Dipak and other residents. The place has been the epicentre of all activities since the air crash. As dawn broke and flights started to take off and land above their heads, with operations continuing at the airport, residents climbed to the terrace to have a glimpse of the aftermath. A line of smashed trees, twisted branches, a series of badly damaged buildings and the debris of the ill-fated plane were lying at a short distance. Security forces and fire service officers had swarmed the cordoned-off area.

"I was downstairs when I first heard a very loud sound. In the beginning, I could not understand what was happening. So, I tried to go up to the terrace to have a look, and that was when I saw the flames leaping out right outside the door that leads to our terrace. I lost my senses," Rewa Ben told ETV Bharat.

"It was something that one should never witness. Once we heard the boom, we rushed downstairs. The children started crying. There was thick smoke everywhere, and at first we could hardly see anything. It was after the smoke thinned that we could make out what exactly had happened. The first responders were at the site soon," said Dipak.

As Rewa Ben and Dipak recounted their Thursday afternoon experience, an aircraft took off and flew above. "If only this had happened yesterday, so many lives would have been saved," Dipak sighed. Business was as usual at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, but Meghani Nagar has changed. For a long time.

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