Ahmedabad plane crash: Damaged BJ Medical College hostels vacated for probe; students shifted to alternative accommodation | Ahmedabad News

NEW DELHI: In the aftermath of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, the hostels of BJ Medical College that suffered structural damage are being vacated to facilitate an official investigation, said Dr Meenaxi Parikh, Dean of BJ Medical College on Saturday.159 medical students and resident doctors who lost their accommodations due to the crash have been provided with alternative housing arrangements. The vacated hostels will be thoroughly inspected as part of the crash probe. AI crash toll rises to 274Salvage teams recovered the black box of the ill-fated Air India flight AI-171 on Friday, along with 29 additional bodies, raising the death toll to 274 in what is now the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Indian aviation history.The rising casualty figure—exceeding the 242 passengers and crew initially onboard the 787-8 Dreamliner—points to significant ground fatalities. Many of the additional victims are believed to be residents or staff of Ahmedabad’s BJ Medical College campus, where the aircraft crashed, including doctors, medical students, workers, and their family members.Sources said that some relatives of doctors living in a residential block on the college premises are also feared dead.The Dreamliner had taken off from Ahmedabad airport for London’s Gatwick at 1:39 pm on Thursday but failed to gain altitude beyond 425 feet. Moments later, it plunged into the residential quarters and students’ mess on the medical college campus, located just 3 km from the edge of the runway.PM Modi inspects AI-171 crash site, meets injured survivorsA day after one of the deadliest air tragedies in Indian aviation history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site of Air India flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad on Friday. He also met with injured survivors at the Civil Hospital, including the lone survivor of the crash, and chaired a high-level meeting with top Union and state government officials to review the situation.During his visit to the city, the Prime Minister also met grieving family members of former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who lost relatives in the crash.Modi spent around 20 minutes at the wreckage site, where the Air India Dreamliner 787 crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday afternoon.