Unable To Sleep’: 14 Days Later, Residents Around Ahmedabad Airport Still Gripped By Fear

The ground on which they stood shook suddenly – so did their homes. Windows and doors swung open as the Air India flight crashed just 20 metres away from their houses in Meghaninagar, Ahmedabad.

London-bound Air India flight AI-171, carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on June 12. Tragically, all but one passenger lost their lives, along with nearly 29 people on the ground, when the plane went down on the BJ Medical College hostel complex immediately after take-off.The residents now live in perpetual fear, suffering full-blown panic attacks since the day of the crash. Hundreds of planes fly over their housing society every day to and from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. Their houses lie directly in the flight path – every five minutes, a plane flies overhead. The sound and sight of aircraft were once part and parcel of daily life. That fateful day, however, the Air India flight had an unusual sound – and it was flying low.

First, it hit a tall tree inside the BJ Medical College hostel complex before crashing into the hostel mess and the Atulyam hostel blocks.

“We are scared. We want to be relocated somewhere else, or the planes should be flown via another route,” say Kishanbhai and his wife Maniben. Kishanbhai is still nursing burn wounds, sustained while running in confusion and shock after the plane crashed.