Air India: Medical Student Who Witnessed Plane Crash Shares How He Helped in Rescuing Colleagues

• Parth Solanki, a first-year medical student, was in the mess hall at BJ Medical College when an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into the building on June 12, 2025
• The crash occurred shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, with the plane headed for London’s Gatwick Airport, carrying 242 people
• Solanki shared how he and his hostel mates escaped and how they helped rescue trapped students

A first-year medical student, 20-year-old Parth Solanki, shared how he helped to rescue colleagues when a plane crashed into his college's building.

An Air India plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, India, on June 12.

The aircraft crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital in Ahmedabad and exploded into flames.

The plane was headed for London’s Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom with 242 people on board, and only one survived the crash.

As reported by the Times of India, Solanki was having his lunch with other students when the plane crash happened.

Student shares experience about Air India plane crash

Solanki said he was seated in the mess hall with 25 of his hostel mates when the explosion occurred.

He said:

"The wall behind me shook... then came this deafening sound. The entire hall exploded into dust, screams, and darkness.”

He noted that one side of the hall was full of flames after a gas cylinder exploded.

Solanki added:

"We were trapped. Everything went silent for a moment — then came the panic."

As the smoke thinned, Parth and a few senior students stumbled toward the staircase, clearing a narrow path through broken furniture and twisted metal.

After he and others escaped, they heard the cries of other students in distress and found a way to rescue them.

Solanki and others grabbed mattresses from nearby hostel rooms, carried them on their shoulders and on scooters, and rushed to place them under the mess windows.

They then asked their friends to jump on the mattresses.

He said:

"Some landed hard, some were bruised. But they lived. We did what we had to. If we hadn't, I don't know if we would be here. It feels like a miracle. Somehow, in the middle of flames, metal, screams, and smoke, we made it out alive.”

Meanwhile, the owners of Air India mentioned the amount they would pay to the families of the victims of the tragic plane crash.

Teenage boy killed by Air India crash

In a related story on Legit.ng, a teenage boy, Akash Patni, who was resting near his family's tea stall, was tragically among those killed in the crash that shook Ahmedabad in India.

When the crash happened, the boy’s mother, Sita, who was unaware that her son was sleeping nearby, managed to run.

Akash’s mother, Sita, survived with injuries and is in the ICU, unaware that her son died just metres away.

Source: Legit.ng