We Had Lunch, But I Finished Early, My Friend Got Crushed

What exactly happened on Thursday afternoon after the Air India flight 171 took off from Ahmedabad airport, and in less than a minute, crashed into the nearby BJ Medical College complex?

- Prawesh Lama

AHMEDABAD: While the exact sequence of events that followed the crash is unclear, what is evident is that some students had a miraculous escape.

Students present in hostel complex at the time of the crash and rescuers who reached the spot soon after said the plane hit tail-first on the mess of the hostel. A part of the ceiling and walls collapsed. The plane's belly, its flap and wings broke off. Some part of the plane hit the fourth floor of a residential quarters within the hostel complex, while a massive fire broke out.

Kishan Valaki, a second-year MBBS student, said he heard a deafening sound, just after an early lunch and while on his way down the stairs from the mess hall. "It took us sometime to realise that a plane had crashed. I was fortunately saved because the wall crashed on to a beam that shielded me," he said. "The tail hit the building. There was no fire. The walls gave away and our friends were crushed in the rubble."