The teen who filmed the Ahmedabad plane video the world saw

Whenever Aryan Asari heard the sound of an airplane, he was going to get out of the house to find him.

Identifying the planes was a hobby for him, his father MaganbhaI Asari said. Aryan loved the roaring sound of the engine to fill the air, then gets stronger while the plane crossed above him, leaving behind Crayous Trail threads in the sky.

But now, even thought makes him sick.

Last Thursday, the 17-year-old was on the terrace of Mr. Asari’s house in the city of Ahmedabad, making aircraft videos, when an Air India Dreamliner 787-8 crashed right in front of his eyes and caught fire, 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. He was going down and went down. Then he won and crashed just before my eyes,” he told the BBC Gujarati in an interview earlier this week.

The video, now a crucial index for investigators trying to find the cause of the accident, sent undulations to the media and put Aryan – a high school student – at the center of one of the worst aeronautical disasters in the history of the country.

“We were overwhelmed by interview requests. The journalists hit my house day and night to ask him to speak to him,” Asari told the BBC.

The incident – and what has followed since – had a “devastating impact” on Aryan, which is traumatized by what he saw. “My son is so afraid that he stopped using his phone,” said Asari.

An army soldier with retired, who is now working with the city’s metro service, Mr. Asari has been staying in a district for three years near the airport. He recently moved to a small room on the terrace of a three -story building, with a clear view of the city’s horizon.

His wife and two children – Aryan and his older sister – live in their ancestral village near the border between the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

“It was the first time thatryan in Ahmedabad. In fact, it was the first time in his life that he left the village,” said Asari.

“Each time I would call, Aryan asked me if I could spot planes from our terrace and I would tell him that you could see hundreds of them stifling the sky.”

Aryan, he explained, was passionate about plane and liked to look at them as they flew in the sky over his village. The idea that he could see them much more closely on the terrace of his father’s new house was very attractive to him.

An opportunity arose last week when Mr. Asari’s daughter, who wants to become a police officer, went to Ahmedabad to pass the entrance exam.

Aryan decided to accompany him. “He told me that he wanted to buy new notebooks and clothes,” said Asari.

The brothers and sisters arrived in their father’s house around noon Thursday, about an hour and a half before the accident.

The family had lunch together, after which Mr. Asari went to work, leaving the children at home.

Aryan came out on the terrace and started making videos from the house to show her friends. It was then that he spotted the Air India plane and started filming it, he told the BBC Gujarati.

Aryan quickly realized that something was not quite right about the plane: “It was trembling, moving to the left and right,” he said.

As the plane went in a descending spiral, he continued to film it, unable to understand what was going to happen.

But when thick smoke filled the air and the fire believed in the buildings, he finally realized what he had just witnessed.

He sent the video to his father and called him.

“He looked so frightened-‘I saw him dad, I saw him crash’ ‘,” he told me and continued to ask me what would happen to him. I told him to sit tight and not worry, “said Asari. “But he was out of him with horror.”

Mr. Asari also asked his son not to share the video more. However, too frightened and shocked, Aryan sent him to some of his friends. “The next thing we knew, the clip was everywhere.”

The next few days have been a nightmare for the family.

Neighbors, journalists and cameras flooded the little house and the night of Mr. Asari, asking to speak to Aryen. “We couldn’t do anything to stop them,” he said.

The family also received a police visit, who took Aryan to the station and recorded their declaration.

Mr. Asari said that contrary to reports, Aryan was not detained, but that the police questioned him for a few hours on what he saw.

“My son was so disturbed at that time that we decided to send him back to the village.”

Back home, Aryan has resumed school but “still does not feel like him. His mother tells me that each time his phone rings, he is afraid,” said Asari.

“I know he will go well over time. But I don’t think my son will try to look for planes in heaven again,” he added.

Additional Roxy Gagdekar, BBC Gujarati, in Ahmedabad.

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