Air Crash

On September 5, 2010, my family and I had been to the Bangalore Airport to pick up my grandmother who was returning from visiting my aunt in New York.

While waiting for her to retrieve her baggage, we heard loud commotion. When we looked up towards the sky, we saw a huge aircraft suddenly appear directly in front of us and only about 80 meters away. We knew instantly that something was wrong.

It all happened so quickly and yet so slowly as the aircraft seemed to linger in the air and the grinding, struggling engines seemed to shout in despair.

We stood and watched as it dipped down and exploded into a huge fire ball rising hundreds of feet into the air.

Soon after, we were engulfed in an acrid smell which must have come from the aircraft. The smell must have come from the engines. It had the smell of an electrical fire.

It was like watching a 3D movie in action. We were all awed by the sight of the plane crash, but once that feeling went away, it was just the sinking feeling that remained when we thought of the ill fated passengers on that aircraft. We were standing there helpless looking around at people and registering the shocked expressions on their faces.

We heard later on the news and read in the newspapers that a total of 120 passengers died in that air crash with no survivors. The pilot misjudged the length of the runway leading to the crash.

What was supposed to be a happy reunion for us, became a day of mourning that my family and I will never forget.

The chance of witnessing such an event and at such close quarters is a one in several million chance, but one which I would not want to see again.