Mangalore: He helped all but one survivor

The Hindu

• Southern Railway announces a cash award of Rs. 25,000 to Bilal 
• He was going to work around 6.15 a.m. on Saturday
• He rushed to the spot after hearing a loud noise

 

 
N. Syed Ahmed Bilal

MANGALORE: On Saturday, railway trackman N. Syed Bilal Ahmed set out from his house to his post at gang number 13 Maravoor, as a routine, at around 6.15 a.m., without the slightest imagination that he would be helping to rescue seven persons from an inferno.

Mr. Bilal lives about one kilometre away from the site of the crash and had just crossed the Gurupur railway bridge, when he heard a loud sound and turned around to see the smoke rising above the tree-tops. He rushed to the spot and saw some people looking at the wreck, too scared to go near.

“I tried to get as close as I could. There were some villagers with me.

As we moved towards the wreck, we saw three people getting out of the wreck towards us,” he said.

Recalling the experience on Sunday, the 29-year-old from Chennai told The Hindu, “Who, log dar dar ke, bhatak bhatak ke jungle se aa rahe the” (People were stumbling and falling in fear as they tried to negotiate the forest terrain).”

Mr. Bilal and other villagers helped them to a safe spot, away from the inferno, and tried to arrange transport for them.

“At that time, there was still no ambulance. So I called my house-owner and asked him to send his car.” (They were later identified as Mayankutty, Krishnan Koolikkunnu, G.K. Pradeep and were taken to S.C.S. Hospital). As soon as they were sent off in the car, he returned to the crash site to look for more. “The trees in that forest are thorny. Some of the village people had sickles and they hacked out a path.” Amid the confusion, Mr. Bilal and other people found three more men. Two of them — Mohammed Usman and Puttur Ismail Abdulla — arranged for their own transport, and the third, Ummer Farook Mohammed, was taken to A.J. Hospital in an autorickshaw.

Sabrina Nasir Haq was the last to come out of the forest. Mr. Bilal said, “The last person we found was a woman. She was bleeding from the head and kept asking ‘where am I?’ in Hindi. We assured her that she was safe. By this time, ambulances had arrived, and they took her away.”

The flames, Mr. Bilal says, “were as tall as two coconut trees (placed one upon the other).

There were explosions every now and then and no way to get to the plane. Two charred bodies were flung away from the plane. I stepped on one of them accidentally and the limb came off,” he said.

Missed survivor

The only survivor whom they could not find was Joel Pratap D’Souza, who got a lift to the Bajpe terminal from a motorcyclist.

A cash award of Rs. 25,000 was declared to Mr. Balal on Sunday by the Southern Railway.