The sound of jet engines was deafening

It was a balm on Thursday afternoon at the housing hostel of the BJ Medical College, and the dining room intensified when the students received lunch.

The room was buzzing with the sound of jokes, a poster between friends and the strange part of the academic discussion.

At 13:39 local time there were at least 35 people in the cafe. Some had already collected their food and settled around while others were in the queue and waiting their turn.

The students were mixed with doctors and family members. Then everything changed.

The overall noise of the dining room was pierced by the sound of the approaching jet engines – and then the room exploded.

Less than a minute in the early flight AI171, it took off from the track at Ahmedabad Airport, only 1.5 km (4,800 feet).

The Air India 787 Dreamliner was bound to London carrying 242 people.

But something had been confused catastrophically, and just seconds after his wheels left the ground, the plane was in difficulty. A call to Maide was sent before collapsing into a lively residential area – at the top of the doctors’ hostel – sending a massive fiery ball into the sky and killing everyone except one on board.

The BBC talks to eyewitnesses, including students who were in the hostel, along with friends of the doctors of the trainees who died and their teachers, to bring together what happened in those horrific for a few seconds – and the subsequent ones that followed.

People on Earth nearby could not immediately understand what had happened.

A doctor who works in the Department of Kidney Science of College says he and his colleagues were in their building, about 500 meters, when they heard a “deafening sound” outside.

“At first, we decided it was lightning. But then we wondered, could it be possible in 40C dry heat?”

The doctors were running out.

Then a few people heard to shout, “Look, come here, a plane crashed into our building.”

The next few minutes were blurring. Chaos scenes descended into the campus as people ran around, trying to escape – or to find out what happened.

The prince brothers and Krish were on their bikes just a few meters from the hostel when they heard the noise.

“Within seconds, we could see something that looked like an airplane wing,” the 18 -year -old prince told the BBC.

“We rushed to the stage, but the heat from the explosion was intense and we couldn’t get into the hostel. There were many debris.”

The brothers, along with several other volunteers from the local area, waited for the heat to go away before trying to get into the building physically. They worked with the police to move some of the debris from the entrance.

When they finally reached the dining room, they couldn’t see anyone.

The dark, thick clouds of smoke had swallowed the room. The air smelled of burnt metal. The brothers, who just before that they headed to play cricket, began to remove gas cylinders for cooking to avoid additional explosions, explained the 20 -year -old Krish.

Then the brothers and other volunteers noticed a pile of suitcases and went to move them. What unfolded further, they said was the numbness of the gut.

Behind them, they began to depict people’s shapes.

Most were alive. Some had spoons filled with food in their hand, some had food plates in front of them, while others had glasses in their hand.

They were all seriously injured.

They were also silent, in shock. Just minutes before they have their usual afternoon. Now they were surrounded by charred metal pieces of airplane.

“They didn’t even get a chance to react,” said another doctor who was in a nearby building.

A second year student who lived in the hostel was among those who managed to escape.

He was sitting in his usual place – a large table in the corner of the mess, next to one of the walls – with nine others when the plane crashed.

“There was a huge bang and a terrible creaking sound. The next thing we knew was under huge stones, stuck without going anywhere,” he says. “The fire and smoke of the crashed plane were close to our face and it was difficult to breathe.”

He received severe chest wounds during the accident and is still undergoing treatment at a local hospital. And he doesn’t know what happened to his friends.

Numerous eyewitnesses told the BBC that the massive wing of the aircraft first broke through the roof, followed by parts of the fuselage. The damage was the most severe where the wing fell.

In chaos, students began to jump from as high as the second and third floors to escape. Later, students told how one of the only staircases outside was blocked by debris.

It is not known how many people were killed on earth.

Dr. Minakshi Parich, Dean of the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, told the BBC that four of their students had died, as well as relatives of four students.

But exactly how much and who is killed can take days to establish: Investigators must rely on DNA to officially identify the bodies found in the remains.

And not just the people in the dining room at that moment were killed.

Just a few kilometers away was Ravi Takur, who worked in the hostel kitchen. He had come out to deliver boxes for lunch to other dormitories around the city. His wife and two -year -old daughter stayed in the back as usual.

When he heard the news, he rushed back but found complete chaos. It took about 45 minutes and the place was full of locals, firefighters, ambulances and Air India staff.

He tried to look for his wife and his child, but couldn’t find them.

In the main hospital block, teachers are still trying to make sense of the chaos.

“Previously, I taught these students and knew them personally. The wounded students are still being treated at the hospital and they are currently our priority,” a professor at the BBC told a college.

In the meantime, Ravi Takur is still looking for his loved ones, even when his hopes fade quickly.