One witness said the smoke from the burning plane was so huge that it ‘blocked out the sun’
“We are used to seeing planes taking off or landing at the airport, but I was horrified to see one heading right at us. The plane’s tail struck a building that houses a student hostel and got stuck. The front portion broke and, after falling down, skidded for a few metres before it hit another building,” Patel told This Week in Asia.
A deafening blast followed that engulfed four blocks in flames in his neighbourhood.
“Luckily, a few of the students and other people inside, who were having a meal, could escape from the stairs at the back. We saw about two dozen people come out alive from the blaze,” he said. “We straightaway took them in our cars to a nearby government hospital.”
The heat was so intense from the plane’s explosion that a few passers-by also died, Patel recalled.
