Tail hung on mess, fuselage on quarters: Doctors left the mess after lunch. Air India flight crashed minutes later

AHMEDABAD: AI-171, which was scheduled to depart from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport’s Terminal 2 at 1.10pm, began its takeoff at 1.39pm on the 3,505-metre Runway No. 23. What was to be an estimated 9-hour, 22-minute journey to Gatwick airport ended when the Dreamliner — the first one to crash since Boeing launched the 787-8 — looped into Atulyam-4, the residential quarters of super-specialist resident doctors, and a mess for UG and PG students at one of Gujarat’s top medical colleges.As rescuers scoured the plane’s wreckage, spread across half a kilometre, it became clear that survivors would be hard to find. While the fuselage rested on residential quarters, the tail hung from the damaged mess building where doctors had assembled for lunch. Teams from NDRF, IAF, BSF and NSG were part of salvage operations along with 50-odd ambulances and 65 fire engines.Dr Tushar Patel, an internal medicine specialist, said the toll in the mess would have been much higher had the plane crashed into the building moments earlier.

Hundreds of doctors had left the building by then after lunch.The aircraft’s black box — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — holds the key to finding out how the disaster occurred, aviation officials said.This is India’s first major civil aviation disaster since 2020, when an Air India Express flight skidded off a wet runway while landing at Kozhikode in Kerala and split into two. Of the 190 people onboard, 21, including the two pilots, died.

The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision between Saudia and Kazakhstan Airlines flights caused the highest casualties — 349 — in an air crash in India. On Oct 19, 1988, an Indian Airlines plane crashed in its final approach to Ahmedabad airport, killing 130 people.“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words,” PM Narendra Modi wrote on X after news of the AI 171 crash sent ripples of shock coursing through the world.

“In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected,” he said.Britain’s King Charles III said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were “desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad this morning”. British PM Keir Starmer called the tragedy “devastating”.Aircraft maker Boeing said in a statement that it was in contact with Air India and ready to offer any support to the Tata-owned airline.