A tale of two Gujarat air crashes and a common 'emergency worker'

Ahmedabad plane crash
AHMEDABAD: Two aviation disasters in Ahmedabad 37 years apart saw Dr Hasmukh Patel, MLA from Amraiwadi constituency, play an eerily familiar role as "emergency worker" at BJ Medical College, reports Parag Dave.
Back in 1988, Patel was a second-year MBBS student at the medical college and civil hospital when news came in of Indian Airlines Flight 113 from Mumbai crashlanding at Kotarpur as it approached the city airport. None among the 133 passengers and crew survived the catastrophe.
"I remember rushing to the post-mortem room since my alma mater was grappling with a staff shortage. One Dr Deshmukh was the head of the forensic sciences department, and we served in whatever capacity we could.
There were so many bodies that we hardly had space to stand," Patel recalled.
June 12 brought back memories of the 1988 tragedy as the MLA rushed to the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital campus, where Air India flight AI 171 crashed. "I helped the staff put tags on the body bags. In both crashes, those killed were beyond recognition. It was heart-wrenching," Patel said.

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