Even as it was a question of life and death for him, one of the pilots said the first thought that came to him was to crash the plane in a place that saw no human occupation. 

Just as he had realised that there was a bad turn of events, this pilot ensured the plane was taken to a forest area, said a member of the medical team who rescued him. 

Sujata Pinto, the nursing superintendent from HOSMAT Hospital was among those who witnessed the incident and also attended to one of them in minutes after the crash. 

Pinto told DH, "We had stationed the ambulance there to attend to cases or mass casualties if any as a precaution. We were looking at these two planes during the practice. In a second, the two of them cut together and the wings of one of these snapped. The two flights fell in different directions," she recollected. 

Even as the medical team was unaware of the location of the crash, they followed the smoke and reached to one of the pilots. "The situation was such, we could not even ask him for his identity. We suspected he had a cervical injury. By the time we could trace him and give first aid, the team from the Air Force also reached the spot," she added. 

The pilot who had sustained abrasions all over his face was, however, conscious and responding to all queries, she said. Soon, he was put on the stretcher. 

Pinto said, "He told us that he wanted to ensure he did not crash on any locality with houses. He looked for a patch of greenery and then pressed the eject button."

The pilot also constantly requested the team to help him reach his family. "He requested us to give him a mobile phone. He also kept asking us what sort of injuries he had sustained and if his face had too many injuries," she said.

This pilot who was rescued from a location near the compound of the show area has been sifted to Command Hospital and is undergoing treatment there. "He complained of chest pain and his vision was very poor. He was unable to even count the fingers when we tried testing him," she added.