AKOLA: Aishwarya Toshniwal, a 30-year-old medical student from Akola in Maharashtra, was in her hostel when the Air India flight crashed into the BJ Medical College hospital mess, just metres away. She has not stopped thanking her destiny since she came out of the building unscathed, reports Dhananjay Sable.Jolted by the explosion, Aishwarya watched with horror the leaping flames and smouldering debris from the fifth-floor window of her hostel building. The plane had nose-dived into the diagonally opposite building. The smoke and fire were spreading fast, and wreckage was being tossed in all directions. Instead of panicking, Aishwarya, who was well-versed with every nook and corner of the building, wrapped herself in a blanket and rushed out. She was breathless and choking, and even suffered burns, while navigating her way to the ground through the smoke-filled stairways and corridors in pitch darkness. “This will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’ve never been so close to death,” she said.
