Ahmedabad plane crash: On BJMC anniversary day, sombre mood on campus coping with grief

Ahmedabad: A year ago, the mood was celebratory as the BJ Medical College and Hospital marked its foundation day. On Monday, the scene spelt devastation and despair families awaiting identification of their kin killed when an Air India plane crashed into the complex, medics who lost their colleagues soldiering on stoically and everywhere the ruins of what once was.

This foundation day, its 146th, will forever stand out for its stark sorrow. The BJMC, one of the oldest medical colleges in India, has been the epicentre of action following the June 12 crash, which killed 241 people on board and 29 on the ground, including five MBBS students. While families, their faces grim with grief and anxiety, waited for DNA identification so they could claim the bodies of their loved ones, the environs reflected their state of mind.

Thick layers of soot are still deposited on its buildings, a star reminder of one of aviation's worst disasters. On June 16 last year, many of its students and alumni had taken to social media to wish their college and alma mater a "happy birthday", but grief and chaotic scenes are what is evident on the campus right now, as survivors and family members struggle to come to terms with the crash.

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No celebrations this year

Dean Dr Minakshi Parikh said this year the medical college did not have the time or the mindset to think about it considering the ghastly incident. "Every year we do some or the other educational programme. Since June 12, all our efforts to directed towards helping those who have suffered in the disaster and their relatives. The medical college is doing all it can to help the families. It is also taking efforts that there is no burnout either of the doctors involved in treating patients since June 12," Parikh told PTI.

Parikh said alternate rooms have been given to all those who were asked to vacate the accommodation after the accident. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB) had asked the medical college to vacate four buildings that suffered damage due to the aircraft to conduct its probe. The London-bound flight AI171 -- Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 -- crashed moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday afternoon, and fell onto the campus of the medical college in the Meghaninagar area, before going up in flames.

Many medical students and resident doctors had just sat for their meal at the hostel mess when the tail-side portion of the aircraft rammed into it, turning an ordinary lunch hour into a horrific nightmare. The images of the detached tail portion of the aircraft precariously lodged near the roof of the hostel mess building, pieces of the fuselage scattered on the ground and inside buildings, and piles of charred bodies still haunt many who have been affected by the tragedy.

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Survivors' tale

A day after the crash, Arun Prashant, a Chennai native and second-year MD student at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College (BJMC), recalled the horror and how he jumped from the first floor of a hostel building to escape. "I came to have lunch around 1:30 pm. While having lunch, I heard a loud explosion, and suddenly there was smoke everywhere. I ran downstairs and then jumped from the first floor of the building," Prashant told reporters.

"We were around 20-30 people at Atulyam (hostel)... We got to know it was a plane crash only after coming out of the building," he recalled. Beginning its journey in 1871 as the Ahmedabad Medical School, the institute has been a cornerstone of medical education since its inception.

Initially affiliated to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, it began with just 14 students training as hospital assistants. The institution steadily expanded, securing affiliation with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bombay in 1917 and later with the Bombay University in 1946, earning its status as B J Medical College, "offering L C P S diplomas", the website says.

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BJ Medical College origins

The college, which currently has several large buildings on its campus, including the main block built after Independence, has a humble origin. A bilingual -- English and Gujarati -- inscription on an old plaque in the institute reads "The Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical School Ahmedabad, Established 16th June 1879. Like the Sister Institution at Poona, this School takes its Name from the Late Hon'ble Mr Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, CSI, who Contributed a Sum of Rs 20,000 Towards the Construction of the School Building".

In the 1950s, the college affiliated its undergraduate and postgraduate courses with the Gujarat University. "Each year, 250 students secure admission through a national entrance examination, receiving world-class training in medical sciences," the BJMC website says. Postgraduate courses are offered in 24 branches of medicine, with a total intake of 418 students annually, it says.

BJMC alumni have served various medical institutions throughout their journey, and today would have been a day for celebration and exchanging greetings, but for the air crash, one of the worst aviation disasters in recent history. Amid the tragedy, the doctors of this prestigious institution continue to serve the injured, the ailing, and the needy, living up to the pledge they took after graduation.

While June 16 is already enshrined as a historic day for this institute, now June 12 too will be etched in the collective consciousness of people associated with the medical college - a day they will wish to forget.