Eyewitnesses Narrate How Air India Plane Carrying 242 People Crashed Into College Canteen

• The Air India 787 Dreamliner with 242 people was on its way to London crashed into the canteen of the BJ Medical College in London on Thursday, June 12
• It was learnt that the college canteen was full of people as it was time for the students to line up to get their lunch
• Eyewitnesses, including friends and families of the casualties, have narrated how the incident happened

On Thursday afternoon, June 12, 2025, the residential hostel of the BJ Medical College and the canteen were beaming with students getting ready for their lunch. There were sounds of jokes and banter in the room, and the atmosphere was full of the odd bit of discussion on academic topics.

At about 13.39 local time, no less than 35 people were already in the cafeteria. Some of the students had collected their food and were staying around, while several others were waiting in the queue for their turn. The hall was a mixture of students, doctors and family members before everything changed.

The lively hum of the canteen was abruptly pierced by the sound of jet engines that approached the room and then exploded.

How Air India 787 Dreamliner crashed

In less than a minute that Flight AI171 took off from the runway at Ahmedabad's airport, which was just 1.5km (4,800ft) away. The Air India 787 Dreamliner with 242 people was on its way to London.

The catastrophe happened as the plane got into trouble just seconds after taking its wheels off the ground, then crashed into the busy residential area, at the top of the doctors' hostel. The incident sent a massive fireball into the air and killed all except one person on board.

According to the BBC, eyewitnesses, including the students at the hostel, the late trainee doctors' friends, as well as their teachers, explained what happened in terrifying words and events that followed the incident.

College doctor explains when Air India crashed

One doctor who works at the kidney science department of the college narrated that he and his colleagues were in the building, which was 500 meters away, before they heard the "deafening sound" outside. He said they had thought it was lightning but realised it was 40C dry heat.

He further explained that they ran outside and they heard a few people screaming. They then realised it was a plane crash. The cloud reportedly became blurred, and the scenes were chaotic. Several people ran to escape to find out what had happened.

Two brothers, Prince and Krish Patni, who were on their bikes just a few meters away from the hostel, also narrated their experience when the incident happened.

One of them said:

"We rushed to the scene, but the heat from the explosion was intense, and we couldn't enter the hostel. There was a lot of debris."

Air India: Man dies after wife's burial

Legit.ng earlier reported that a UK-based father of two, Arjun Patoliya, tragically died in the Air India flight crash that killed 241 passengers.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route to London, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, India, on June 12, 2025.

Arjun was returning to the UK after fulfilling his wife Bharatiben’s last wish by conducting burial rites and scattering her ashes in a village river in Gujarat.

Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.

Source: Legit.ng