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The Star
a day ago
- General
- The Star
Indian canteen worker's hopes dashed, no second miracle in air crash
FILE PHOTO: A fire officer stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. - Photo: Reuters AHMEDABAD, (India): Ravi Thakor had been hoping his mother and two-year old daughter had escaped just before an Air India jet crashed into the building they were in. A week after one of the world's worst aviation disasters killed more than 270 people in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Thakor's hopes were dashed when doctors matched his DNA on Wednesday (June 18) with the remains of his mother Sarla and daughter Aadhya. A canteen worker in a college hostel, Thakor and other family members had left the hostel around 30 minutes before Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft crashed into the building. Sarla had stayed back, cooking and looking after Aadhya, who was asleep. Thakor and his wife Lalita searched for them in hospitals and the morgue after the crash. After not finding them for days, they said they were hoping for a "second miracle", referring to the lone passenger aboard the plane who survived the disaster. On Thursday, the dead bodies were handed over to Thakor's family for the final rites. "We are going to cremate my mother and daughter. It is very difficult for me to say anything right now, but at least we know what happened to them," Thakor said, struggling to speak. At least 211 DNA samples had been matched, and 189 dead bodies handed over to families, Rakesh Joshi, the medical superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told reporters on Thursday. The dead included 241 people on board the plane and at least 30 on the ground. - Reuters
Straits Times
a day ago
- General
- Straits Times
Indian canteen worker's hopes dashed, no second miracle in air crash
AHMEDABAD, India - Ravi Thakor had been hoping his mother and two-year old daughter had escaped just before an Air India jet crashed into the building they were in. A week after one of the world's worst aviation disasters killed more than 270 people in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Thakor's hopes were dashed when doctors matched his DNA on Wednesday with the remains of his mother Sarla and daughter Aadhya. A canteen worker in a college hostel, Thakor and other family members had left the hostel around 30 minutes before Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft crashed into the building. Sarla had stayed back, cooking and looking after Aadhya, who was asleep. Thakor and his wife Lalita searched for them in hospitals and the morgue after the crash. After not finding them for days, they said they were hoping for a "second miracle", referring to the lone passenger aboard the plane who survived the disaster. On Thursday, the dead bodies were handed over to Thakor's family for the final rites. "We are going to cremate my mother and daughter. It is very difficult for me to say anything right now, but at least we know what happened to them," Thakor said, struggling to speak. At least 211 DNA samples had been matched, and 189 dead bodies handed over to families, Rakesh Joshi, the medical superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told reporters on Thursday. The dead included 241 people on board the plane and at least 30 on the ground. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
a day ago
- General
- Reuters
Indian canteen worker's hopes dashed, no second miracle in air crash
AHMEDABAD, India, June 19 (Reuters) - Ravi Thakor had been hoping his mother and two-year old daughter had escaped just before an Air India jet crashed into the building they were in. A week after one of the world's worst aviation disasters killed more than 270 people in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Thakor's hopes were dashed when doctors matched his DNA on Wednesday with the remains of his mother Sarla and daughter Aadhya. A canteen worker in a college hostel, Thakor and other family members had left the hostel around 30 minutes before Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft crashed into the building. Sarla had stayed back, cooking and looking after Aadhya, who was asleep. Thakor and his wife Lalita searched for them in hospitals and the morgue after the crash. After not finding them for days, they said they were hoping for a "second miracle", referring to the lone passenger aboard the plane who survived the disaster. On Thursday, the dead bodies were handed over to Thakor's family for the final rites. "We are going to cremate my mother and daughter. It is very difficult for me to say anything right now, but at least we know what happened to them," Thakor said, struggling to speak. At least 211 DNA samples had been matched, and 189 dead bodies handed over to families, Rakesh Joshi, the medical superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told reporters on Thursday. The dead included 241 people on board the plane and at least 30 on the ground.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Indian Express
Eight found dead, 3 still missing from BJMC hostels 96 hours after Ahmedabad plane crash
Tragedy struck the Atulyam hostels of BJ Medical College on June 12 when an Air India flight partly crashed into the top floor of one of the buildings, where MBBS students and others were having lunch. Three people who were known to be on the premises remain missing 96 hours after the crash. Debris from the aircraft had been scattered across a 500-metre radius, and three of the four hostel buildings were engulfed in flames. Dean Dr Minakshi Parikh confirmed to The Indian Express that as of June 16, eight persons present on the premises at the time of the crash had been confirmed dead and their bodies handed over to their families. Among the first bodies to be recovered and handed over were those of the medical students who died when the tail section of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into the mess area before hitting the ground. They have been identified as Rakesh Diyora of Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Aryan Rajput of Borcharnan village in Barmer district, Rajasthan, Manav Bhadoo of Pilibanga village in Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan, and Jay Prakash Chaudhary of Jigsoli village in Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh. The wife of a doctor also died in the crash, while another doctor lost three members of his family. These included his mother, his maternal aunt's husband, and their daughter. Dr Parikh confirmed that their bodies had been identified and handed over to the family. The three missing persons, meanwhile, have not been accounted for among the injured, and DNA tests on the recovered remains have so far failed to identify them. One of those missing is a doctor who had come to visit relatives at the hostel. He completed his MBBS and internship at the Government Medical College in Surat and was reportedly preparing for the NEET postgraduate examination. He had gone to visit his sister and brother-in-law, the latter a student at BJ Medical College. The other two missing persons are Sarla, a cook at the Atulyam hostels, and her infant grand-daughter Aadhya. Sarla's family works at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. On the afternoon of June 12, Sarla was preparing lunch for the medical students while her son and daughter-in-law had gone to deliver tiffins at the hospital, leaving Aadhya in Sarla's care. Since the crash, neither Sarla nor Aadhya has been seen.
Indian Express
7 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
Ahmedabad plane crash: Lunchtime on June 12
For the hostellers and students of B J Medical College, the sound of airplanes roaring overhead was nothing unusual. Until one flew too close. On June 12, an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight carrying 242 people to London Gatwick Airport, went down moments after it took off from Ahmedabad airport at 1.38 pm, killing 241 of those on board. As it plunged with a vertical speed of 475 feet per minute, its tail first struck the college's Atulyam hostel mess, where students had turned up for lunch, turning the first-floor dining room into a jumble of twisted concrete and leaving at least four medical students and the wife of a doctor dead. Around 20 students were wounded, five of them critically. The hostel is at a distance of around a kilometre from the Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport, the two complexes separated by the Ahmedabad cantonment area. Since it fell on the flight path, one of the favourite pastimes for students was to stand on the roof, look up at the belly of the flying planes and guess the airlines, the aircraft type, the model, says a former student. 'We could even see the landing gear being brought out before the planes touched down on the runway and the flaps opening when the flights took off. When we had nothing to do, we would go to the roof for some plane spotting,' says the former student. He says he once saw an Air India flight trying to touch down six times, circling back each time, before it landed successfully. 'We were used to conversations being interrupted by the sound of aircraft,' he says, explaining why there may have been nothing to alert the students in the mess and the hostels about the approaching aircraft. When the tail hit the building, bringing down a wall and engulfing the mess in a cloud of smoke and dust, some managed to run, others got stuck. A little past 1.30 pm, Meena Mistry, a cook at the Atulyam hostel mess, reprimanded a few stragglers who walked into the mess. 'Lunch time starts at 12.30 pm, but some of them came late and I scolded them,' she recalls. She and the other cooks were making rotis for the 25-30 students in the mess when disaster struck. 'Initially, I thought that one of the cooking cylinders had exploded. But when a wall of fire came towards me, I realised it was a major accident. I ran for my life,' she says. 'A part of the plane crashed into the hand wash area. While many students were trapped, others ran out of the building. I ran too. It was so dark we couldn't see anything. When we reached down, the entire plane was burning.' Apart from the students, there were at least 13 women workers in the dining hall. At least one of them, Sarla, and her infant grandchild, have been missing since the incident. 'Sarla maasi and her granddaughter are still missing. When the baby's parents go to deliver tiffins to doctors at the hospital, they leave the baby in the mess. Maasi's son is still looking for them.' With 250 MBBS students and 400 students in 24 postgraduate branches, B J Medical College is one of the oldest in the state. The medical college is part of the 110-acre Civil Hospital 'Medicity' campus. Said to be the biggest medical complex in Asia, the campus houses many other institutions, including the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre, U N Mehta Heart Hospital, Dental & Cancer Hospital, TB Hospital and Paraplegia Hospital. The mess and the hostel blocks are the buildings closest to the airport. Adjacent to the mess are four hostels — all for superspecialty postgraduates, some staying with their partners. The two-storeyed mess, with dining spaces on both floors, usually offers a no-frills, middle-of-work meal with dal, rice and rotis. Students say while most of them opt for the mess food when they join and pay for it as part of their fees, it is mostly frequented by undergraduate students. 'Postgraduate students usually work 24×7 or have no fixed timings, with all the bedside rounds and classes. So they prefer eating their tiffins in the hospital itself, whenever they get some time. Most of them would smuggle a hotplate to their rooms and cook some basic food since they would never make it in time for the canteen lunch and dinner. But the first- and second-year MBBS students at least get to eat on time at the canteen,' says the former student. On June 12 too, most of the students at the mess were undergraduate students. 'Unfortunately, the incident happened bang in the middle of lunch hour. Had it taken place before 1 or post 2 pm, hardly anyone would have been there. Had the flight gone any further, he says, it would have hit the 1,200-bed hospital on campus,' says a warden. Jeet Bhuriya, 18, was among those who turned up late for lunch that day. A first-year MBBS student, he and his friends had just reached the mess when the plane crashed into the building, burying them under a debris of concrete and steel. 'As soon as we reached the ground floor of the mess hall, the ceiling collapsed on us. I don't remember what happened after that. I was told four students carried me to the trauma centre,' says Jeet, who suffered head and leg injuries, and is undergoing treatment at the adjoining civil hospital. At his home in Dahod, Gujarat, his father Govindbhai Narubhai says, 'We are lucky he made it out alive.' Ritesh Kumar Sharma, a second-year student from Bihar, was in the mess on the first floor when the plane crashed, a friend says. He was taken to the civil hospital. Nikul, another second-year student, was riding to the mess with his friends when he saw black smoke rising in swirls just ahead. 'They tried to run for cover, but all three suffered burns,' says Nikul's uncle Rameshbhai Chaudhary. Metres away from the mess are the four hostel blocks that bore the brunt of the crash, charred and covered in soot from the fire that engulfed the fallen aircraft. A postgraduate student, 23, says he was sleeping in his fifth-floor hostel room when the plane crashed. 'I was on night shift and slept around 10 am. A few hours later, I heard a blast. Within seconds, I could smell smoke. I rushed out of the building and saw fire in the mess building. It was difficult to make sense of anything. I rushed to the hospital along with others,' says the student. In some time, those who suffered injuries too were brought to the hospital. A day after the crash, wardens have been assigned to ensure that students go back to their rooms to retrieve their belongings, and vacate the premises. The wardens said the students were being relocated to other hostels for now. College authorities said that the students have been asked to take some time off to recover from the traumatic incident. 'We doctors are used to seeing all kinds of emergency situations. But this is unlike anything we have seen,' says a doctor. Input from Parimal Dabhi
