Air India crash: Bihar medico recounts how he escaped from the jaws of death

Patna: It was 1.40 pm on Thursday. Like many other MBBS students of the BJ Medical College Hospital in Ahmedabad, 24-year-old Ritesh Kumar Sharma was having his lunch in the hostel mess.

“Suddenly, at around 1.40 pm, there was a deafening sound, with the Air India plane crashing into our hostel and its nose hitting the wall of our mess. I, along with three of my batchmates, were having lunch. As soon as the mighty aircraft crashed into the medical college premises and hit our mess, the walls crumbled and two of my batch-mates died on the spot after being buried in the debris,” recounted Ritesh, originally from Bihar’s Begusarai, who was lucky enough to escape from the jaws of an imminent death.

“I just don’t know I am alive today. I remember some luggage (from the aircraft) fell on me, and some portion of the wall too hit my legs. Fortunately, a furniture table fell on me, which, in turn, protected me from the debris falling incessantly. However, my leg got stuck in the debris as the nose of the aircraft had entered the mess premises. The loud explosion in the aircraft led to the cooking cylinder blast in the kitchen. My third friend, who had gone to the kitchen to get some food, got engulfed in the fire and died on the spot. Out of four friends, only I could survive, thanks to my seniors who rushed to the mess and pulled me out of the debris. However, by that time, my leg was badly fractured and I became unconscious. I was rushed to the same hospital where the aircraft passenger – the lone survivor–was also being treated,” recounted Ritesh.

Someone from Ahmedabad called Ritesh’s mother, Sunaina Devi, in Begusarai to inform her about her son being treated at the hospital. Sunaina, an Aanganwadi worker, was crestfallen as she had already lost her elder son in a road accident, and the news she was watching on TV petrified her. She called up at the hospital and was informed at around 5 pm on Thursday that her son was alive and undergoing treatment. It was only at around 8 pm, when she could speak to her son through video call, that she heaved a sigh of relief.

Ritesh’s father, a carpenter, works in a furniture shop in Kolkata and had sold his land in Bihar to help him prepare for the medical entrance test at the Kota coaching centre, which, in turn, helped him get admission into the MBBS course. Ritesh is presently a second-year student. His parents, completely shaken, have sent Ritesh’s maternal uncle to Ahmedabad to meet him. “After due permission from the authorities concerned, we will like to bring him here (in Bihar) and then send him to our family doctor in Darjeeling (West Bengal) for his further treatment,” said his another uncle Mantu Sharma.