Ahmedabad still flinches at the sound of engines. A year after Air India Flight AI-132 plowed into the BJ Medical College campus, the city’s reflexive glance upward now carries dread, not routine.
Key Points
- ✅ Nineteen people killed on the ground in Ahmedabad
- ⚡ Crash site remains unrepaired; demolition approved but delayed
- 💡 Survivors describe lasting trauma and unanswered questions
Prahlod Thakur’s morning begins with framed faces. His wife, Sarlaben, stares from a peeling green wall, and his granddaughter Aadhya beams in a white dress. Both died inside the hostel mess less than two kilometres from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 15, 2023.
Thakur was running the family tiffin service across the medical campus when the Boeing 737 touched down too soon. He remembers heat, gas cylinders popping, and calling “Sarla, Sarla” through smoke that still stains his memory.
Sarlaben had taken Aadhya upstairs moments before impact. The two-year-old never made it back to the kitchen floor.
💡 Pro Tip
Emergency responders recommend keeping a whistle on key rings; it travels farther than screams in collapsed buildings.
Six days passed before Thakur found them in the city morgue. Today, he folds biscuits into napkins he can no longer hand to Aadhya’s small hands.
Inside the same hostel, trainee doctor Arman Khan Pathan was seconds from lunch when metal screamed through concrete. A collapsing wall trapped his legs; exploding cylinders forced rescuers back. “It was pitch black,” he says. “I was suffocating.”
| Survivor | Role at impact | Injury |
|---|---|---|
| Arman Khan Pathan | Medical student seated for lunch | Crush injuries, smoke inhalation |
| Aditya Dayal | Medical student en route to mess | Psychological trauma |
| Brijesh | Motorcyclist passing campus | Second-degree burns, ongoing therapy |
Arman’s friend Aditya Dayal arrived as smoke rose. Together they carried Arman out on a mattress. Later, as medics, they confronted bodies so charred they were unrecognisable. “It made me want to throw up,” Aditya recalls. The smell, he says, still surfaces without warning.
Among the lost was a young man who was the sole brother to several sisters—an anchor figure whose future vanished in seconds.
📋 By The Numbers
- 260 — Total victims including 241 passengers and crew
- 1,200m — Distance from airport to crash site
- 15 — Years the Thakur family ran the tiffin service
Official plans to demolish the wrecked hostel and build a replacement remain stalled. Students still walk past exposed wiring and soot-blackened staircases on their way to lectures. Aeroplanes roar overhead every few minutes, their shadows crossing the same sky that once felt safe.
“We don’t look at the sky anymore,” Thakur says. “Every engine is a ghost.”
- 📊 Grief has settled into the campus fabric like ash
- 🔍 Investigators have not yet released the final report
- ⚠️ Delayed demolition risks further exposure to hazardous materials
Local officials cite budget approvals and environmental clearances as hurdles. Families receive no official updates on progress.
- First — Demolition tender floated March 2024, delayed by monsoon season
- Second — New hostel design includes trauma counselling centre
- Third — Relocation of displaced students set for 2025
