The recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, has brought forth a story of miraculous survival and sparked a renewed interest in the phenomenon of lone survivors in aviation disasters. Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, emerged as the sole survivor from the wreckage of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 241 other passengers and crew members. What makes Ramesh's story even more intriguing is the detail that he was seated in seat 11A.
Adding an eerie layer to this tragedy, it has emerged that Thai actor and singer Ruangsak Loychusak also survived a plane crash in 1998 while seated in the same seat, 11A. Loychusak was on Thai Airways Flight TG261 when it crashed into a swamp during landing in Surat Thani, resulting in 101 fatalities. This uncanny coincidence has left many pondering the role of fate and the seemingly random nature of survival in such catastrophic events.
Ramesh himself described the harrowing moments leading up to his escape. Speaking from his hospital bed, he recounted how the aircraft lights flickered, and the plane felt "stuck in the air" before slamming into a building and exploding. He managed to unbuckle himself and crawl out through an opening in the fuselage. He saw the air hostesses and other passengers dying in front of his eyes, adding "For a moment, I felt like I was going to die too, but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realised I was alive and I just walked out".
The circumstances surrounding Ramesh's survival highlight the unpredictable nature of plane crashes. According to Ron Bartsch, chairman at Sydney-based AvLaw Aviation Consulting, seat 11A "was obviously the safest seat" in this particular instance because Ramesh was sitting adjacent to the emergency exit. However, he cautioned that "it's not always 11A, it's just 11A on this configuration of the Boeing 787."
The debate about the safest seat on a plane is an ongoing one, with no definitive answer. Factors such as the type of aircraft, the location of impact, and individual circumstances all play a crucial role in determining survival. Mitchell Fox, a director at Flight Safety Foundation, emphasized that "each accident is different, and it is impossible to predict survivability based on seat location."
Other remarkable stories of lone survivors exist. Juliane Koepcke, in 1971, survived a fall of 10,000 feet from a plane over the Amazon rainforest, still strapped to her seat. Ruben van Assouw, a nine-year-old boy, survived a plane crash in Tripoli, Libya, in 2010. Bahia Bakari, a 12-year-old girl, survived the crash of Yemenia Flight 626 in 2009, clinging to debris in the Indian Ocean for nine hours before being rescued. Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant, holds the Guinness World Record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute, at 33,300 feet, after the JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 crash in 1972.
These stories, including Ramesh's, highlight the extraordinary will to live and the unpredictable nature of survival against all odds. While the "enigma" of seat 11A may offer a sense of intrigue, it is important to remember that survival in a plane crash is often a matter of chance and circumstance, rather than a guarantee based on seat location.
