Counsellors help AI crash victims

When the London Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171 crashed into the hostel buildings of Ahmedabad's BJ Medical College in the afternoon of June 12, Dr Urveki Parekh was at her house in the nearby residential quarters that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner narrowly missed.

- Prawesh Lama

AHMEDABAD: When the London Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171 crashed into the hostel buildings of Ahmedabad's BJ Medical College in the afternoon of June 12, Dr Urveki Parekh was at her house in the nearby residential quarters that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner narrowly missed.

By 7pm, Parekh, an assistant professor at the same college with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in Psychiatry, was counselling relatives of passengers on board the flight at the medical college.

The 32-year-old is now among the group of grief counsellors roped in by the state health department for counselling families affected by the crash.

The Gujarat government, on Saturday, announced that grief counsellors have been assigned to families to help them deal with the mental trauma. The move comes two days after AI-171 crashed seconds after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, killing 241 out of 242 people on board, marking India's worst single-aircraft tragedy.