India, Aug. 27 -- Being a pilot, any news of an air accident causes deep anguish. Watching the visuals of the Air India crash at Ahmedabad on June 12, my heart went out to those who lost their near and dear ones. Many years ago, I witnessed a similar accident while serving in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Our contingent had recently been inducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the brigade headquarters was located right next to the airfield at Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. I can't forget that date: April 15, 2008. I had just entered my hut after lunch, when we heard a loud bang. Hearing such sounds in the war-torn country was routine, but this bang was frighteningly different. I rushed out and saw a thick black cloud of smoke at the end of the runway. Soon we learnt from the ATC that a passenger aircraft had crashed. In no time, we were at the accident site for casualty evacuation. A Congolese aircraft of Hewa Bora Airways had crashed during takeoff. The underpowered engines failed to lift the plane from the ground and it overran the runway on the plateau, tearing through the market in front. Before the plane burst into flames, few passengers and the pilots miraculously survived by jumping out in the nick of time; sadly, others were not as fortunate. The houses and the shops in the flight path of the fireball were gutted. The Indian peacekeepers did a commendable job rescuing the survivors endangering their own lives in the vicinity of the raging fire. It was heartrending, seeing people at the airport wail for their kith and kin whom they had bid goodbye just a few minutes back. But a more distressing sight was that of local Congolese rushing to the mangled remains and looting valuables of the dead and injured. Poverty can bring out the worst in people. As if this was not enough, there were airport officials busy recording the horrific scenes on their handycams rather than assisting the soldiers in saving lives. I've never seen a worse display of humanity than that. The doctors of the Indian military hospital rose to the occasion and their prompt response in treating the injured saved many lives. Many of them were later awarded the force commander's citation for their professional and humanitarian conduct. Being a soldier, untimely deaths are not alien to me. But it hurts when you see promising lives perish so wastefully. In the past few months, we've seen tourists get killed in cold blood, cricket fans die in a stampede and dreams being shattered aboard the Boeing Dreamliner. None of the victims would have imagined what lay ahead. After every such tragedy, I get philosophical and take a pledge to live just for today; what if tomorrow never comes. Unfortunately, I invariably relapse into the world of 'Maya' (illusion), with a self-assuring belief that this won't happen to me. In this fickleness of fortune, can we ever trust life?...