The terrifying second when Air India aircraft crashed right into a canteen

[ad_1] Vikas Pandey, Antriksha Pathania and Zoya Mateen BBC Information, Ahmedabad

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a4da/live/884c52a0-4867-11f0-83bd-e5b5d0a69992.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images Plates with food on them sit on a table covered in thick white dust with a pair of doctors' latex gloves lying either side - as if cast aside by a person the moment the plane struck the building" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Pictures It was a balmy Thursday afternoon on the residential hostel of the BJ Medical School and the canteen was teeming with college students getting lunch.

The room buzzed with the sound of jokes, banter between associates, and the odd bit of educational dialogue.

By 13:39 native time, there have been no less than 35 folks within the cafeteria. Some had already collected their meals and had been lounging round, whereas others had been within the queue ready for his or her flip.

The scholars blended with medical doctors and members of the family. Then, the whole lot modified.

The final hum of the canteen was pierced by the sound of approaching jet engines - after which the room exploded.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/84da/live/9fab9530-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Hindustan Times via Getty Images People stand amid a chaotic scene of debris within the doctors' mess hall after the crash. It is clearly dark outside, meaning it is several hours since the incident" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Hindustan Occasions through Getty Pictures Rescuers searched by means of the wreckage and particles within the mess corridor on Thursday night time

Lower than a minute earlier, Flight AI171 had taken off from the runway at Ahmedabad's airport, simply 1.5km (4,800ft) away.

The Air India 787 Dreamliner was certain for London, carrying 242 folks.

However one thing had gone catastrophically improper, and mere seconds after its wheels left the bottom, the aircraft was in hassle. A mayday name was despatched earlier than it got here crashing down right into a busy residential space - on high of the medical doctors' hostel - sending an enormous fireball into the sky and killing all however one particular person on board.

The BBC has spoken to eyewitnesses, together with college students who had been within the hostel, together with associates of the trainee medical doctors who died and their academics, to piece collectively what occurred in these terrifying few seconds - and the aftermath that adopted.

Individuals on the bottom close by could not instantly work out what had occurred.

A physician, who works with the faculty's kidney sciences division, says he and his colleagues had been of their constructing, about 500 metres away, after they heard a "deafening sound" exterior.

"At first, we thought it was lightning. However then we puzzled, may that be attainable in 40C dry warmth?"

The medical doctors ran exterior.

That is after they heard a number of folks screaming: "Look, come right here, a aircraft has crashed into our constructing."

The subsequent jiffy had been a blur. Scenes of chaos descended on the campus as folks ran round making an attempt to flee - or discover out what had occurred.

Brothers Prince and Krish Patni had been on their bikes only a few metres from the hostel after they heard the noise.

"Inside seconds we may see one thing that resembled a wing of a aircraft," Prince, 18, informed the BBC.

"We rushed to the scene, however the warmth from the explosion was intense and we could not enter the hostel. There was a number of particles."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5a80/live/bd6b65a0-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="AFP via Getty Images Rescuers wearing a variety of clothing - including fire officials - retrieve a body covered by a blanket, on a stretcher, from the ruins of the medical college on Thursday" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> AFP through Getty Pictures Officers are nonetheless trying to determine victims of Thursday's crash

The brothers, together with a number of different volunteers from the native space, waited for the warmth to subside earlier than trying to bodily enter the constructing. They labored along with the police to maneuver among the particles from the doorway.

After they lastly reached the canteen, they could not see anybody.

Darkish, dense clouds of smoke had engulfed the room. The air smelled of burned metallic. The brothers, who simply minutes earlier than had been heading to play cricket, started eradicating cooking fuel cylinders to keep away from any additional explosions, Krish, 20, defined.

The brothers and different volunteers then noticed a pile of suitcases and went to maneuver them. What unfolded subsequent, they stated, was intestine wrenching.

Behind them, they started to make out the shapes of individuals.

Most had been alive. Some had spoons filled with meals of their hand, some had plates of meals in entrance of them, and a few had glasses of their hand.

They had been all badly injured.

They had been additionally silent, in shock. Simply minutes earlier than they had been having their standard afternoon. Now, they had been surrounded by charred metallic items of plane.

"They did not even get an opportunity to react," one other physician, who was in a close-by constructing, stated.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2565/live/d6bbd560-486b-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Graphic shows satellite image of buildings where the India Boeing 787 crashed after take-off in Ahmedabad. On the right hand side are images of pieces of the wreckage and a burned-out building. The locations of where these images were taken are highlighted on the satellite image." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> A second 12 months pupil, who lives within the hostel, was amongst those that managed to flee.

He was sitting at his standard spot - a big desk on the nook of the mess, subsequent to one of many partitions - with 9 others when the aircraft crashed.

"There was an enormous bang and a horrible screeching sound. Subsequent factor we knew, we had been beneath big boulders, caught with out anyplace to go," he says. "The fireplace and smoke of the crashed aircraft was near our face and it was arduous to breathe."

He acquired extreme chest wounds within the accident and continues to be present process remedy at a neighborhood hospital. And he would not know what occurred to his associates.

A number of eyewitnesses informed the BBC the large wing of the aircraft first pierced by means of the roof adopted by components of the fuselage. The harm was most extreme the place the wing fell.

Within the chaos, college students started to leap from as excessive because the second and third flooring to flee. College students later informed how one of many solely staircases out was blocked by particles.

It's not identified how many individuals had been killed on the bottom.

Dr Minakshi Parikh, dean of the BJ Medical School and Civil Hospital, informed the BBC that 4 of their college students had died, in addition to 4 college students' family.

However precisely what number of and who was killed could take days to determine: investigators have to depend on DNA to formally determine the our bodies discovered within the wreckage.

And it was not simply folks within the canteen at that second who had been killed.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0670/live/e847fe00-486e-11f0-84b6-6bf0f66205f1.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Kevin Prajapati and Dr Bharat Ayar A large crowd of people pose for a photograph inside the mess hall, compared with an image of the damaged building after the plane crashed" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Dr Kevin Prajapati and Dr Bharat Ayar The mess corridor seen in an undated {photograph} earlier than the crash (above) after which after Thursday's incident

Only a few kilometres away was Ravi Thakur, who labored within the hostel kitchen. He had gone out to ship lunch bins in different hostels across the metropolis. His spouse and their two-year-old daughter stayed behind as standard.

When he heard the information, he rushed again however discovered utter chaos. Round 45 minutes had handed and the place was filled with locals, firefighters, ambulance staff and Air India workers.

He tried to search for his spouse and youngster however could not discover them.

Again on the predominant hospital block, academics are nonetheless making an attempt make sense of the chaos.

"I used to show these college students and knew them personally. The injured college students are nonetheless being handled within the hospital, and they're our precedence in the intervening time," one professor on the faculty informed the BBC.

In the meantime, Ravi Thakur continues to be looking for his family members, whilst his hopes fade quick.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/81a1/live/27570730-486f-11f0-bbaa-4bc03e0665b7.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Reuters A police officer stands in front of debris at the crash site after an Air India aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 12, 2025.