BBC:
Every time Aryan Asari heard the sound of an airplane, he would go darting out of the house to look for it.
Spotting planes was something of a hobby for him, his father Maganbhai Asari said. Aryan loved the roaring sound of the engine fill the air and then grow louder as the plane cruised above him, leaving behind chalky threads of contrail in the sky,
But now, the very thought of it makes him sick.
Last Thursday, the 17-year-old had been on the terrace of Mr Asari’s house in Ahmedabad city, making videos of airplanes, when an Air India Dreamliner 787-8 crashed right before his eyes and burst into flames, killing 241 on board. Nearly 30 people were also killed on the ground.
The moment was captured by Aryan on his phone.
“I saw the plane. It was going down and down. Then it wobbled and crashed right before my eyes,” he told BBC Gujarati in an interview earlier this week.
The video, now a crucial clue for investigators trying to find the cause of the crash, has sent ripples through the news media and put Aryan – a high school student – at the centre of one of the worst aviation disasters in the country’s history.
“We have been swamped by interview requests. Reporters have been milling around my house day and night asking to speak to him,” Mr Asari told the BBC.
The incident – and what has followed since – has had a “devastating impact” on Aryan, who is traumatised by what he saw. “My son is so scared that he has stopped using his phone,” Mr Asari said.
