"I thought it was landing, but it crashed... Shock"
Leaves the accident site and returns to hometown
A teenager who filmed the moment of the Air India passenger plane crash in India is reportedly suffering from psychological distress due to trauma.
Wreckage of Air India Flight 171 that crashed in a residential area near Ahmedabad Airport, India, on the 13th. Photo by Yonhap News
According to Indian media such as the Times of India on the 16th (local time), Aryan Asari, a 17-year-old boy who accidentally recorded the Air India plane crash, was unable to overcome the psychological shock and left Ahmedabad in western India, where the accident occurred, returning to his hometown of Aravalli.
On the 12th, Asari arrived in Ahmedabad to buy textbooks. After arriving at his father's residence around 12:30 p.m. that day, he went up to the rooftop and witnessed a plane flying low overhead, which he filmed. He said, "It was the first time I saw a plane flying so low, so I started filming out of curiosity. I thought it was landing, but suddenly it crashed and exploded right in front of my eyes. It was horrific."
Aryan sent the video he took to a few friends, but it quickly spread around the world. Afterward, numerous media outlets requested interviews with Aryan, and local police also asked him for statements related to the incident, causing him to experience severe anxiety. While the footage Aryan filmed became a crucial clue for investigators looking into the cause of the crash, it left him traumatized.
Aryan's family told the BBC, "He was so scared that he stopped using his phone. Since he was already in a state of shock, we had no choice but to send him back to his hometown." They added, "Aryan used to enjoy watching planes flying overhead, but it seems unlikely he will ever look for planes in the sky again. He will also never board a plane."
Meanwhile, at around 1:38 p.m. on the 12th, Air India Flight AI171, which departed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad for London, United Kingdom, crashed just 30 seconds after takeoff. The death toll from the accident has reached at least 270 as of now. Of the 242 people on board, only one British citizen of Indian origin survived. The plane crashed into the dormitory of the National B.J. Medical College, resulting in additional casualties on the ground.
Indian authorities are investigating the cause of the accident based on the black box, which contains the pilots' voice recordings and flight data, as well as the wreckage. Although the exact cause has not yet been identified, aviation experts have pointed to several possible reasons, including engine performance degradation, issues with wing configuration, or landing gear that was not retracted immediately after takeoff.
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