On the first anniversary of the Air India Flight AI-171 disaster, senior officials from Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and the city police have offered the most detailed public account yet of the emergency response, forensic operations, and multi-agency coordination that followed one of India's deadliest aviation tragedies. The crash, which occurred on 12 June last year, killed around 260 people in total — 241 on board and at least 19 on the ground — and triggered a round-the-clock relief operation that stretched across weeks.

How the disaster unfolded

Air India Flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London, crashed shortly after take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and struck the B.J. Medical College hostel and mess complex in the Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad, triggering an intense fire. Of the 242 passengers and crew on board, only one survived the aircraft impact, according to officials. The overall death toll, including ground fatalities, stood at approximately 260.

Inside the hospital's mass-casualty response

Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rakesh Joshi was mid-way through a seven-hour surgery when his Chief Security Officer called at approximately 1:40–1:45 pm to report heavy smoke near the campus. Within seconds, the call was updated: a plane had crashed. 'I handed over my surgery to Professor Jayshree and immediately changed and left,' Dr Joshi recalled.

He immediately broadcast a group alert to hospital teams, directing all staff not engaged in critical care to report to the trauma centre. Multidisciplinary units — surgeons, anaesthetists, emergency medicine specialists, neurosurgeons, and physicians — were activated within minutes to form triage teams. 'The first patient I encountered was a gardener with burn injuries who reported that the aircraft had fallen on the hostel mess,' he said. 'For the first 40–50 minutes, injured patients continued to arrive, including at least one individual who claimed to have been a passenger on the aircraft.'

After roughly one hour, the flow of injured survivors stopped entirely. Severely burnt, unrecognisable bodies began arriving instead, making conventional identification impossible.

Weeks of DNA identification work

Under the supervision of forensic department head Dr Dharmendra Patel, continuous post-mortem examinations were conducted. DNA samples were collected, labelled, and dispatched to the Forensic Science Laboratory with crash-specific case numbers. Relatives were accommodated at B.J. Medical College and Kasauti Bhavan, where counselling was organised. Under Dr Meeta Khandelwal, DNA samples were also collected from family members to enable matching with victim remains.

The first DNA match was confirmed within 48 hours of the crash. Approximately 90–95 per cent of bodies were received at the hospital within the first three to four hours. In all, 254 victims were identified through DNA matching and six through facial identification. 'The entire identification and handover process continued for around 17 to 18 days,' Dr Joshi said.

He described the early days as deeply distressing, with hundreds of relatives arriving in shock — many of them connected to the medical campus itself. 'The psychological pressure was immense, requiring continuous counselling and structured communication to manage uncertainty,' he recalled. He confirmed that no staff left duty on the day of the crash, with surgeries, post-mortems, and administrative work continuing round the clock.

Police operations: securing the crash zone

Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector 1) Neeraj Budgujar, who served as crash-site in-charge for the first 72 hours, described a parallel emergency operation focused on securing the zone and preventing unauthorised access. He said he spotted smoke rising from his office shortly after a crime conference had concluded and immediately proceeded to the site.

On arrival, firefighting was already underway and body evacuation had begun. His immediate priority was cordoning off the open area to protect victims' belongings — passports, jewellery, mobile phones — and to secure the aircraft's black box. CISF and Army personnel were already present when police arrived. Once bodies were moved to the civil hospital, local police established barricades and cleared civilians, including relatives searching for missing persons.

Officers worked shifts of 18 to 20 hours and used wet cloths for protection before masks were made available, given the intense heat, smoke, and hazardous air at the site. Senior officers including Vidhi Chaudhary at the control room, Jaipal Rathod, and Sharad Singhal managed mortuary and hospital coordination in parallel teams. Coordination with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and arrangements for VVIP visits added to the operational load. No major injuries to police personnel were reported, according to Budgujar.

A convergence of institutions

Both officials characterised the broader operation as an unprecedented convergence of emergency systems — hospitals, police, forensic experts, municipal authorities, civil aviation investigators, and support organisations — functioning without interruption across days and nights. As the first anniversary is observed, their accounts underscore not only the immediate scale of destruction but the prolonged human, administrative, and forensic effort required in its aftermath. Investigations by the AAIB into the causes of the crash are ongoing.