The temperature around the crashed Air India aircraft in Ahmedabad soared to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius, severely hampering rescue operations and leaving virtually no chance of survival, officials reported on Thursday night. According to eyewitnesses and rescue personnel, the intensity of the blaze was so extreme that even animals at the site, including dogs and birds, were unable to escape.
The tragic incident involved a London-bound Air India flight carrying 242 passengers and crew members. The aircraft crashed in a densely populated residential area of Ahmedabad just minutes after taking off from the city’s airport on Thursday afternoon.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing reporters, said, “There was 1.25 lakh litres of fuel inside the plane, and it caught fire, so it was impossible to save anyone.”
Personnel from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) responded swiftly to the crash site, which included the hostel and residential quarters for doctors and staff at BJ Medical College. The teams arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 pm. However, by the time they reached the scene, local residents had already pulled out a few survivors, and no one else was found alive.
A senior fire department official explained, “As the aircraft’s fuel tank exploded, it created an inferno. The temperature rose to 1,000 degrees Celsius almost instantly, leaving little to no chance for anyone in the vicinity to survive.”
An SDRF personnel, who has served in the force since 2017, said the scale of devastation was beyond anything he had previously encountered. “We came equipped with PPE kits, but the heat was so intense that it made operations extremely difficult. There was burning debris everywhere, and we had to start clearing it while it was still smouldering,” he said.
The same official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, shared that his team had recovered between 25 to 30 bodies, including those of children. “DNA testing will be required to identify most of the victims,” he added. Another SDRF member admitted he lost count of the number of bodies he recovered. “It all happened so fast. Even animals and birds had no time to escape,” he said, pointing to the charred remains of dogs and birds within the residential complex.
Apart from the passengers and crew on board, students staying in the hostels of BJ Medical College and other individuals present on the premises were also among those killed in the disaster. While police have confirmed that 265 bodies were brought to the civil hospital, an official death toll is yet to be formally announced.
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