Air India crash, a year later: ‘Even today, if I close my eyes, I can see those bodies’

Vaghela, who is also the local MLA from Asarva constituency, recalled how she came to know about the crash and how it was difficult to handle the situation then amid family members, mostly of passengers, enquiring about their near and dear ones.

Four junior doctors of BJ Medical College were also killed in the crash while they were having lunch at the hostel mess. The plane had crashed on the mess building and four hostel blocks nearby. The four deceased are Aryan Rajput, Jai Prakash Chaudhary, Manav Bhadu and Rakesh Diyora.

In the memory of the deceased, the college also organised a tree-plantation programme and a blood donation camp.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the event, some of the junior doctors of the college who narrowly survived or escaped the crash shared their experiences.

Anand Khasatiya (28), a student of MD Microbiology, was staying on the third floor of Atulyam 1 building – one of the hostel blocks of the college – along with three other resident doctors and is among those who survived the crash. Speaking with The Indian Express, Khasatiya said that before having lunch, he went to the hostel room along with his roommate Denish Dave.

He said that generally since the hostel is located quite close to the airport, the sound of airplanes is common to the residents. However, referring to the noise of the plane crash, he added, that it was extremely loud.

“We wondered if it was a plane crash or what? Then within seconds, it crashed into our building. We heard something was passing by (our building) and then the crash. The bed on which we were sitting started trembling. The windows too were trembling. Then we came to the hall (of the 1BHK accommodation), and by then smoke had started seeping inside,” Khasatiya said.

Khasatiya and his friend then went to the ground floor.

“There was so much fire and smoke that we could not see anything clearly. When we came out, some vehicles there had caught fire. And then we were trying to leave the place through a safe passage and on the way we found a security man who was sitting on the ground floor on a chair. His hands and hair were burning. We brought him to a safe place. Our phone was in the room. So, we informed our roommates through the phone of a sanitation worker. We asked one of them to inform the Junior Doctor Association about the plane crash on Atulyam,” Khasatiya said.

He added, “We came downstairs barefoot. Neither me nor my roommate Denish suffered any injury. But because we were barefoot, we had some burn injuries on the feet. We were among the first to exit the building. We were looking for others who were stranded in the buildings. The picture outside was horrible and we realised the gravity of the situation only then.”

Khasatiya added that the incident has affected their mental health to such an extent that, “Even today, if I hear a plane, I suddenly wake up. Such is the fear I have.”

Another medical student, Bhagirath Chavda (22), had a close call when he had just left the mess building after lunch minutes before the crash.

Chavda, a final year MBBS student, said, “The timings for lunch at the mess are from noon to 2 pm. I had just finished my lunch at 1:30 pm and was going to my hostel. I crossed barely a 100-metre distance when I heard the loud noise. I thought it could be some bomb. I did not even imagine that it could be a plane crash.”
Later, Chavda said he immediately reached the crash site, the mess premises, to help friends who could have been stuck there.

“We helped our friends who were injured in the incident. I could see a part of the plane hanging on the roof of the mess,” Chavda said.

Chavda added that later on jawans of police and fire brigade arrived and they took over the rescue and relief operations.

Vipul Ahir (29), a second year PG student of Forensic Medicine, too narrowly escaped the crash as he skipped lunch on June 12, 2025.

Ahir said, “Masi (referring to a woman cook at the mess) called me to ask if I would have lunch. I told her that since I had a heavy breakfast, I will not.”

“Soon after the crash, our department head had asked us all to reach the postmortem room along with our equipment,” said Ahir, adding that he was involved in carrying out post-mortem of the dead bodies.

“Even today, if I close my eyes, I can see those bodies in front of me…We do not want to see such a scene again ever,” said Ahir.