Newsroom
The lone survivor of the Air India crash that killed 241 people says he woke up surrounded by fire, wreckage, and bodies and simply ran for his life.
“I have no idea how I got out of the plane,” said 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, speaking from his hospital bed just hours after the disaster. “There were pieces of the plane everywhere. People were screaming. I just stood up and ran.”
The crash happened just moments after Flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad on Thursday, June 12, bound for London. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down in a residential area, bursting into flames on impact. Of the 230 passengers and 12 crew members on board, Ramesh was the only one to survive.
Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, had been visiting relatives in India with his older brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh, 45. The two were seated just rows apart. Vishwash was in seat 11A, the same seat where emergency crews later found him alive, badly injured but conscious.
“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise. Then everything went black,” he told The Times of India. “When I came to, I was still in my seat, but the plane was in pieces.”
Ramesh described choking smoke, rising flames, and the horrifying silence that followed the explosion. “I looked around, and there were bodies everywhere. I was scared. I didn’t think; I just moved. Someone must have helped me to the ambulance, I don’t even remember that part.”
He suffered injuries to his chest, eyes, and feet, what doctors are calling “impact injuries.” He’s currently being treated in an Ahmedabad hospital, where doctors say he is stable but under close observation.
His brother Ajay is among the dead, confirmed by airline officials who have said no other passengers or crew members survived.
Family members in the UK are reeling. “We’re just shocked,” said another brother, Nayank Ramesh, speaking to The Guardian. “We last spoke to him [Vishwash] the morning of the flight. It’s hard to understand how he made it out alive.”
Vishwash managed to call some relatives from the hospital, telling them he was “okay” and that he was “lucky to be alive.” According to reports, he has been cooperative with investigators and is slowly recalling more details about the crash.
Authorities say the plane may have experienced a technical failure moments after takeoff, but a full investigation is still underway. A video shared on social media shows the jet descending sharply before it crashes, triggering a massive fireball.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson confirmed the crash and called it one of the darkest days in the airline’s history. “Our hearts are with the families,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to support those affected.”
As for Vishwash Ramesh, the man who somehow survived it all, doctors say he has a long road to recovery. But for now, he’s alive, and that alone is being described by many as a miracle.
“I just ran,” he said again. “That’s all I remember.”
*Source: People magazine
