Plane crash neighbourhood.is engulfed by grief in India

Families in Ahmedabad mourn loved ones after jet hit college

- NAMITA SINGH

Grief hangs heavy in Meghani Nagar in Ahmedabad, as the wreckage of a London-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies smouldering in the compound of BJ Medical College.

The devastating crash – which took place at around 2pm local time on Thursday – left emergency services scrambling amid thick plumes of smoke and debris, entire streets in shock and families shattered. All but one of the 242 people on board the flight were killed, but there were dozens more fatalities on the ground as the plane came down in a residential area.

Among those devastated by the unfathomable tragedy is the Patni family. Seventy-year-old Babibehen Babu Bhai Patni sits on the gritty communal floor of her residential society, utterly inconsolable.

She mourns her 12-year-old grandson Akash, whose life was tragically cut short, while her son and daughter‑in‑law suffered grievous injuries. The young boy was accompanying his mother, Sitabehen Patni, when he fell asleep beneath a tree near their tea stall on the college grounds. Moments later, the aircraft hurtled from the sky, engulfing him in a fatal fire.

“All that remains of him is his burnt body, almost looking like a piece of ash,” Babibehen says, her voice choked with agony. “My daughter... her arm, her leg, all burnt. She is serious and in ICU. My son is also burnt. Nothing of my grandson is left. What will I do? Is this even his age to die?”

Her grief is unfiltered, raw and unrelenting as she wails loudly, surrounded by the women of her community. The body of Akash remains at the hospital in Ahmedabad, awaiting identification and release to his family – a cruel limbo that amplifies her sorrow.

Outside the Civil Hospital, 24‑year‑old Kajal Patni – Akash’s grief-struck elder sister – waits in the oppressive sun as she retraces the final moments of her brother’s life