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I vividly remember the Mangalore air crash, it was May 22, a Saturday. Since my bday was two days later, the family was getting ready to go to Mysore for a small holiday. Our freelancer Sreenivas Naik called sometime after 6.20 am saying a plane accident happened.
I told him to get details. He called a little later and said many dead, we think more than 100 dead. I didn't want to believe him. How can this happen? He must be exaggerating, I thought. I told @vmvignesh no holiday, called Arnab, Vivek (my editors) and @aslesha1 my colleague
Three camerapersons, Ash and I rushed to the office, got into our Innova car and rushed. Throughput the journey- we were really over-speeding- more horrifying details came in. It became clear that there were hardly any survivors. I think we reached Mangalore in 6 hours.
To reach the crash site, we had to go on a road that sloped up, I think it was on a hill. When we reached, we were the first English TV channel crews to reach, the bodies had not been cleared. There was ash everywhere and a putrid smell. In our rush, we did not have masks
or anything to cover our faces. We saw bodies, body parts being pulled out.
(just to add, the channel got quite a bit of flak for saying first to reach tragedy site. I was conflicted about it. We did take some risk to rush there, report firsthand, or maybe that does not matter)
(just to add, the channel got quite a bit of flak for saying first to reach tragedy site. I was conflicted about it. We did take some risk to rush there, report firsthand, or maybe that does not matter)
The nearby residents and people who rushed from Mangalore looked tired. They had been clearing the bodies, desperately looking for survivors for hours. I remember going live when a person was taken out of the debris, in front of us we could see that he was dead, burnt.
Next few days were spent outside Wenlock hospital. It was heartbreaking to see families struggle to identify the dead. There were cases where families were given just a few body parts, or wring bodies, but almost everyone left with what they could get. There were skirmishes too.
Last night I got this message. "Good evening Dhanya. Dr **** here. Today’s air crash at Kozhikode reminded me of 10 yrs back mangalore aircrash . You were covering it for times now and I was a surgeon on duty at govt Wenlock hosp. You met me in Tajmahal coffee shop opposite hosp
and asked me to help you in coverage as I was on duty and received 158 bodies till late night. Suddenly today’s incident reminded me to message you for the first time". I could not remember him properly but felt touched at the message.
The coverage didn’t end there. Captain Zlatko Glusica was blamed for the crash, air line said not completely their fault in the compensation battle. Meanwhile we sought @Mohan_Rngnathan's help. He had been against tabletop runways and especially Mangalore.
I am still in touch with few of the families.This year, on May 21, 2020, Abdul Rehman- who lost his family in the crash wrote to me. His message in Kannada said,"It will be ten years since Mangaluru air tragedy. But their memories are in our hearts, fill us up with sadness.
Let everyone who died in the tragedy find peace for their souls, I pray as such that the gods receive them."
For these families, it is not an accident to feel bad about for a few days, it is a pain forever.
For these families, it is not an accident to feel bad about for a few days, it is a pain forever.
On a personal note, that accident scared me. I have refused to fly to Mangalore after that.
(message was from Abdul's brother- my bad)
