Ahmedabad plane crash: Crash narrowly missed residential area and three hospitals, staving off a larger death toll

Air India Ahmedabad – London flight crash in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Thursday June 12, 2025.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Air India’s Boeing 787 crashed into a hostel at B.J. Medical College in a portion of sparsely populated area, bordered by dense settlements and at least three hospitals, including the 1,200-bed Civil Hospital, significantly reducing the potential for a greater tragedy.

“If the aircraft had fallen three seconds earlier, it would have fallen atop our colony. Had it fallen three seconds later, it would have crashed into the Civil Hospital within the B.J. Medical College premises,” said Parmar Vikram Singh, a shopkeeper in the densely populated Meghani Nagar that is located across from the residential campus of medical college. The colony houses 151 blocks, each with 24 flats, he said.

The crash killed 241 out of 242 onboard the aircraft, apart from the deaths among the medical college students on the campus.

While right behind the crash site is Meghani Nagar, to its immediate right is the Military Hospital inside the Cantonment. There are two other hospitals in the vicinity i.e. the Civil Hospital, and, a little further, is the Gujarat Cancer Society Medical College, Mr. Singh said.

At the crash site, adjacent to the mess building and four blocks of the college hostel where the aircraft plummeted, is a massive open plot.

Calculations using Google Maps show that a straight path to the Civil Hospital is located at a distance of 750 metres from the crash site, and the Cancer College is at a distance of 1.83 km. The Military Hospital is only about 330 metres from the site.

Investigators are working to establish the precise sequence of events, but initial observations suggest the aircraft came down in one of the few relatively open patches available within this urban stretch — a tree-lined zone, with portions of open fields — thereby narrowly avoiding densely populated areas and critical infrastructure. That the widebody jet did not impact high-rise housing blocks or the sprawling hospital facilities nearby likely prevented a far larger loss of life.

Mr. Singh grew teary-eyed recalling the narrow escape he had as a resident of Meghani Nagar. “I am feeling emotional because when the crash happened, there was no screaming heard from the site. The deaths were instantaneous,” he said.