Skyfall in Ahmedabad Premium

On June 12, an Air India aircraft carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed into the B.J. Medical College in Meghani Nagar, just moments after take-off in Ahmedabad.

Surajbhai Patani sits silently in an autorickshaw on the premises of Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital in Gujarat. Just hours earlier, on June 12, his son, 15-year-old Akash, had rushed to deliver lunch to his wife, Sitaben, at her tea stall in Meghani Nagar, about 5km from the airport. Now, Akash’s body is lying in the hospital morgue, while Sitaben is fighting for her life in the trauma care centre, just a few meters away.

Sitaben and Akash were not on the Air India passenger plane, which crashed into the B.J. Medical College in Meghani Nagar just moments after take-off in Ahmedabad. Yet the tragedy killed Akash in an instant.

Suraj is torn between grief and relief. “Should I be distraught that my son has died or happy that my wife has survived,” he asks.

Vishalbhai, Akash’s brother-in-law, says Sita was at her usual work spot near the medical college when Akash, a Class 9 student at a private school, brought her lunch. “She told me that as she started eating, he lay down on a wooden cot,” says Vishal. “Suddenly the aircraft crashed and burst into flames. Akash was burnt alive.”

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Suraj, an autorickshaw driver, was on duty when the disaster struck. He learned of the accident 30 minutes later and rushed to the scene only to learn that his son was no more.

Air India announced later that 241 of the 242 passengers and crew had died in the crash. There is no confirmation yet on the number of deaths in the medical college and elsewhere in the area although rescuers estimate a death toll of at least 50 people.