Being an eyewitness to a tragedy is never easy. Especially when a Boeing 737 blows up in smoke, leaving 260 people dead.

But some of the eyewitnesses mustered up the courage to talk about what they saw from closer quarters.

Recalling how he was "barely 40 seconds away from the place where the incident happened", an MBBS student from the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, said, "I was just 40 seconds away from the place where this incident happened. I rushed to help and called my friends for help. I pulled out bodies of the students from the debris, some of them were my friends."

'Bodies scattered'

An eyewitness on the ground recounted the plane crash horror and said that dead bodies and debris were scattered all over.

“I was at home when we heard a massive sound. When we went out to see what had happened, there was a layer of thick smoke in the air,” the eyewitness told PTI. "When we came here, dead bodies and debris from the crashed aircraft were scattered all over."

'Smoke filled the entire area'

Another eyewitness spoke to ANI and narrated the events. "As soon as I stepped out of the office, I heard a very loud noise, and smoke filled the area suddenly. A commotion broke out here and then we saw that this accident had occurred," he said. "When I reached the spot, I saw debris scattered here, there was a fire and smoke was billowing here. Nothing was visible...We then came to know that the wings of the aircraft fell here and that an aircraft crashed."

According to one of them, people were seen jumping from as high as the third flood "to save themselves".

"The plane was in flames," the unnamed resident told AFP news agency.

"We helped people get out of the building and sent the injured to the hospital."

Another eyewitness said that the plane crashed into a hostel building, where her son was present.

“My son had gone to the hostel during lunch break, and the plane crashed there. My son is safe, and I have spoken to him,” Ramila told ANI. "He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries.”

Photos show people being carried off on stretchers, and placed into ambulances.

But also in the crowds were people whose family members were on board the flight.

Poonam Patel, who was at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, told ANI that his sister-in-law was on the flight to London.

"Within an hour, I got the news that the plane had crashed. So I came here."

Meanwhile, Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) also shared visuals showing parts of the crashed Air India flight stuck in the hostel mess building of the college. Dr Akshay Dongardhive of FAIMA said around 20-30 students could have been injured on the ground due to the crash.

'Forest fire'

Chandrakant Patil, an IndiGo passenger, told news agency ANI that he was about to board his flight to Pune when he saw thick plumes of smoke rising from a distance. "It looked like a forest fire. We took pictures of the smoke, not knowing what it was. Soon after boarding the aircraft, an announcement of a flight delay was made, but we were not told that such a crash had taken place. We got to know about it only after we checked our phones," he said.

Patil also described chaotic scenes at Ahmedabad airport with a large number of passengers left stranded after the airport shut down its operations soon after the horrifying crash.

Another woman, a neighbour of an AI-171 passenger, waited patiently but anxiously outside. “My neighbour’s daughter was on the flight,” she shared to ANI. “We don’t have any update on her yet as we are not being allowed to go inside."

The aircraft, carrying 242 individuals – 2 pilots and 10 cabin crew – went down in the Meghaninagar area, just outside the airport perimeter.

The crashed aircraft was identified by a senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official as Air India B787 Aircraft VT-ANB. It was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced LTC pilot with 8200 hours, and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had 1100 hours of flying experience.

Miracle in seat 11A: Lone survivor Vishwas Kumar Ramesh

The family of Vishwash Kumar Ramesh in Leicester expressed their relief at his miraculous escape as the sole survivor of the crash, while still in anguish at his missing brother Ajay.

"We were all in shock as soon as we heard what happened, just utter shock; speechless,” Nayan Kumar Ramesh told the BBC.

"He [Vishwash] himself has no idea how he survived, how he got out of the plane. When he called us, he was just more worried about my other brother, like 'Find Ajay, find Ajay'. That's all he cares about at the moment," he said.

The right miss

Bhumi Chauhan, a UK-based woman visiting India, is thanking God and her stars for missing the ill-fated Air India plane.

She was in Ahmedabad for the first time after moving to the UK two years ago.

"I am shivering after I learnt about the crash. I left the airport at 1.30pm as I missed the flight due to traffic. I thank God," Chauhan told Republic TV.

She said she was in India for vacation and scheduled to go back to London on the flight which took off at 1.39 pm and crashed into a medical college complex near the Ahmedabad airport and burst into a ball of fire less than a minute after take-off.

"The flight was on time and I missed it and I thank God. My prayers for all those who were on board," she said.

Unending search

Twenty-four hours after one of aviation's worst disasters, Ravi Thakor was a picture of agony and pain as he went about trying to trace his mother and toddler daughter, who were at the BJ Medical College hostel mess.

"My mother, wife and I work at the BJ Medical College mess. Junior doctors come here to have their lunch, while food for senior doctors is packed and taken to the civil hospital as part of a tiffin service. At 1am on Thursday, we packed food and went to the hospital, while my mother and my daughter were in the mess," a distraught Thakor told reporters.

Since he, his father and wife are out as part of the tiffin service, the toddler is left with the grandmother while she prepares food at the mess, Thakor said on Friday.

"At the time of the crash, my mother Sarla and daughter Aadya were in the mess. It has been 24 hours but I have not got any clue about what has happened to them. I have gone through the lists provided by authorities and have searched for them in civil and private hospitals all through the night," he said, his pain at "unresponsive" authorities evident.

"All the missing students have been located and bodies identified. Only my mother and daughter are untraceable. The guards in the mess are not letting anyone in. I think my mother and daughter may have gone to the ground floor using the stairs. All we want authorities to do is allow us to look around for our satisfaction," Thakor pleaded.

A cook who identified herself as Meena Mistry said she and others were making rotis at the time of the crash.

"We first thought it was a cylinder explosion, but when a massive fireball was spotted, we knew it was something far bigger and sinister. We just rushed out to save our lives, leaving behind keys, phones etc. My two-wheeler was gutted. It had suddenly gone fully dark. When we came down the stairs, we saw the aircraft turning into a ball of fire," she said.," Mistry recounted.

Neemaben Nigam, another cook, too thought it was a cylinder blast before the magnitude of the incident sunk in.

"We have been cooking for doctors and students for 30 years. We are a team of 15 persons. After we saw flames, we just ran without looking back," Nigam said.