13-year-old Akash, whose family had been evicted a fortnight ago and were sleeping on a pavement nearby, was among the hundreds killed in the fatal Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the Air India AI-171 flight crash site, in Ahmedabad on Friday. Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu also present. (ANI Photo)

The heartrending screams of Kalpesh Patni, with tears streaming down his cheeks, rang out outside the post-mortem room of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Inside lay the body of his 13-year-old sibling Akash, awaiting DNA identification — like hundreds of others killed in the fatal crash of Air India flight AI 171, their remains so badly burnt they could no longer be identified by sight.

But Akash was not a passenger on the flight to London. In fact, he had never been on a flight in his tragically short life. His family had been rendered homeless just a fortnight ago, evicted by their landlord. Since then, they had been sleeping on the pavement opposite their chai kitli (tea stall) in the Meghaninagar area, near the UG hostels of BJ Medical College — where the plane crashed.

At least 24 people are learnt to have died on the ground, including four medical students and the wife of a doctor. Akash was among them. By midnight Thursday, Ahmedabad Civil Hospital had received around 265 bodies, most of them passengers on the flight. Air India confirmed 241 people on board had died.

Akash was asleep on the pavement on Thursday afternoon when the plane crashed into the hostel buildings nearby, scattering debris and highly inflammable aviation fuel across a wide area. The resulting fires, burning at temperatures of up to 700°C, spread rapidly across the crash site. The family believes it was this fire that killed their child.

As an inconsolable Kalpesh kept repeating, “Maro bhai, maro bhai (My brother, my brother)”, his friends tried in vain to calm him down. His grandmother, Babiben Patni, the family’s matriarch, attempted to set aside her grief to comfort her surviving grandson.

But her composure gave way as she recalled the incident. “He was sleeping on the road when the plane fell out of the sky,” she said. “Maaro kaanudo maari saame badi gayo (My Kanhaiyya caught fire in front of my eyes).”

“Akash was sleeping on the pavement just across the road from our shop because our family had just been evicted from our home a fortnight ago,” she said.

After every few sentences, Babiben would repeat, “Please bring me my Kanhaiyya back. I won’t be able to live without him.”

Kanhaiyya and Kaanudo — names for the infant Lord Krishna — are often used as terms of endearment for young children.

The family’s ordeal doesn’t end there. Sita Suresh Patni, Akash’s mother, suffered burns on the right side of her body.

“My daughter-in-law Sita was handling business at the kitli, just opposite the road where her son was asleep,” Babiben said. “When Akash began screaming, Sita ran towards him and tried to put out the fire, leading to her also receiving severe burns on the right side of her body. But the boy did not survive.”

The boy’s father, Suresh, had gone in the meantime to the Kasauti Bhavan (examination hall), along with many others, to provide a blood sample for DNA testing to identify Akash’s remains — one among several children killed in the crash.

As the family prepared for a night’s vigil outside the post-mortem room, Babiben, holding her grief in check with the weight of responsibility, turned to her other grandson, trying to help him bear the pain.