Air India crash witnesses recount horrific scenes of corpses and dead dogs

It was just another long and languorous summer afternoon for Chirag Patel at his mobile phone retail shop near Ahmedabad’s airport on the outskirts of the western city when he was greeted by a shocking sight in the sky – a massive Air India plane was plunging towards a building.

“We are used to seeing planes taking off or landing at the airport, but I was horrified to see one heading right at us. The plane’s tail struck a building that houses a student hostel and got stuck. The front portion broke and, after falling down, skidded for a few metres before it hit another building,” Patel told This Week in Asia.

A deafening blast followed that engulfed four blocks in flames in his neighbourhood.

“Luckily, a few of the students and other people inside, who were having a meal, could escape from the stairs at the back. We saw about two dozen people come out alive from the blaze,” he said. “We straightaway took them in our cars to a nearby government hospital.”

At least 290 people are confirmed dead in the crash of the London-bound Boeing 787 jet after take-off on Thursday from Ahmedabad airport, in one of the worst disasters in India’s aviation history.

The heat was so intense from the plane’s explosion that a few passers-by also died, Patel recalled.