Students, staff move out of BJ Medical college, recall Air India crash horror: ‘Survived because…’

Debris from Air India plane carsh

Several students, professors and staff members of the BJ Medical College -- that was hit by the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon -- recalled the tragic moment when the London-bound flight struck the site.

Recalling the horror, a second-year resident doctor, Dr Tarun told news agency ANI, "The fire was very intense. It was not possible to get out of my flat, so I jumped from the balcony. That's how I survived. We are not going home right now. We will go wherever we get an accommodation..."

An Assistant Professor named Dr Piyush, recalling the moment, said that he escaped the building after it was hit by the aircraft and then jumped over the boundary wall. He reportedly suffered a sprain in the process. "If I had waited for another 15-20 seconds inside, I would have died of suffocation or asphyxiation... Many people lived inside with their families," he told ANI.

Meanwhile, the staff members who were working at the mess, where the aircraft rammed into during the crash, also had terrifying stories to tell.

"We rushed downstairs to save our lives. We didn't get to know anything. At that time, we were making rotis... 3 to 4 children died, and 3 to 4 were admitted to the ICU. One woman and a 2-year-old have been missing since yesterday," a worker from the BJ Medical College told ANI.

Air India has confirmed that 241 out of the 242 people who were onboard the AI-171 flight from Ahmedabad to London are dead. There is only one survivor of the crash and he is being treated at a hospital.

The ill-fated Air India flight crashed minutes after takeoff. DGCA has said that the pilots sent out a Mayday call to the ATC but after that, the ATC could not establish any contact with them.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site to assess the on-ground situation and also held a review meeting with officials over the incident.