To the naked eye, everything seemed fine when the Air India Boeing 787-8 accelerated during its take-off roll in Ahmedabad airport on Thursday. The next few seconds, however, indicated the plane could be in trouble as it did not gain altitude.

Fourteen-year-old Akash Patni was sleeping under a tree near his family’s tea stall close to the BJ Medical College hostel building in Meghaninagar area when a cruel twist of fate pulled him in as a statistic in one of aviation’s worst disasters.

A tragic plane crash killed 241 people on board a London-bound Air India flight seconds into take-off in Ahmedabad Thursday afternoon.