'Thought it was an earthquake’: Eyewitnesses recount horrific Ahmedabad plane crash; say sky was filled with black smoke

NEW DELHI: Mohan Bahadur Kshatriya, an eyewitness to the Air India crash in Ahmedabad, recounted scenes of devastation and chaos on Saturday as he joined rescue efforts just minutes after the aircraft went down on Thursday.

Living just 500 meters from the crash site, Kshatriya said he initially mistook the deafening explosion for an earthquake.“I heard a loud bang and thought it was a storm or an earthquake,” he said. “When I stepped out, there was smoke and fire everywhere. People were shouting that a plane had crashed. We ran toward the mess where students were screaming for help.”He worked alongside Army personnel to rescue five severely injured students from the wreckage.

He added, “They were in extremely serious condition. Then we searched further and found a body in terrible shape, trapped under the debris,” he added.Another eyewitness, Rekha Kshatriya, described the moment the aircraft hit as unlike anything they had ever experienced before, even in a neighborhood accustomed to loud noise. “I have been staying here for the last 13-14 years, that day, around 1:30 p.m., we heard a loud noise.

Although we are accustomed to hearing loud noises, this time the noise felt like our eardrums would burst. It seemed like an earthquake. We had just sat down to have lunch, and the furniture in our house had started shaking violently. For a second, it felt like a bomb blast happened. Then, when we went outside, we saw that a plane had crashed.

We saw broken pieces of aircraft everywhere. It was difficult to understand whether it was a plane crash, a terrorist attack, or something else.

The whole sky was filled with black smoke. High flames were rising everywhere."As questions arises about how the tragedy occurred, the civil aviation ministry has constituted a high-level multi-disciplinary committee to investigate the causes of the crash."A High Level Multi-disciplinary Committee is constituted for examining the causes leading to the crash of the Air India Flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport (London) on June 12, 2025.

The Committee will examine the existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines issued to prevent and handle such occurrences and suggest comprehensive guidelines for dealing with such instances in the future," the ministry said in an official statement.

It clarified that the new panel will not replace other formal inquiries but will focus on formulating improved protocols to prevent similar disasters in the future.The aircraft involved, Air India AI-171, was en route from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick Airport when it crashed on June 12.