Viswashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the horrific Air India Flight AI171 crash in Ahmedabad, has shared his harrowing account of the disaster, painting a picture of a failed takeoff and his disbelief at emerging alive from the wreckage. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, claiming the lives of 241 passengers and crew, along with several people on the ground.
Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin, was seated in 11A, near an emergency exit. He recounted that the plane experienced difficulties almost immediately after leaving the runway. "After the takeoff, within a minute, it felt like the plane came to a standstill (in the air) for 5 to 10 seconds," Ramesh told reporters from his hospital bed. He noticed the cabin lights flicker on, displaying green and white hues. He could sense the engines increasing thrust, attempting to gain altitude, but then the aircraft crashed with tremendous speed into a medical college hostel.
The impact was devastating. Ramesh recalls the side of the plane he was on crashing onto the ground floor of the hostel. Amidst the chaos and debris, he opened his eyes and realized he was alive. "For some time I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive," he said. His immediate instinct was to escape. He unbuckled his seatbelt and saw that the emergency exit door had broken open due to the impact. "I could see there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through a little space and I did," he explained. He "just walked out" of the plane. The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall, preventing any escape from that side.
Ramesh suffered burns to his left hand and other injuries. Video footage shows him limping away from the crash site, his clothes smeared with blood and dirt. He was quickly transported to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where doctors described him as disoriented but out of immediate danger. He sustained impact injuries to his chest, face, and feet.
While Ramesh miraculously survived, his brother Ajay, who was seated a few rows away in 11J, perished in the crash. Ramesh's cousin, Hiren Kantilal, stated that Ramesh called his father in the UK immediately after the crash, expressing his survival but desperately seeking information about his brother. "When he called us he was just more worried about my other brother, like 'Find Ajay, find Ajay,'" Nayan Kumar Ramesh, his other brother, told the BBC. "That's all he cares about at the moment."
The Air India crash is one of the worst aviation disasters in India's history and the first crash for a Boeing 787-8. Authorities have launched a full-scale investigation into the cause of the crash, with the help of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and investigators from the UK. The aircraft's "black box," containing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, has been recovered and is expected to provide crucial insights into the sequence of events leading to the tragedy. India's aviation watchdog has ordered Air India to conduct extra safety checks on its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 planes.
Experts emphasize that Ramesh's survival was a confluence of rare circumstances and luck. Stephen Wood, an associate clinical professor at Northeastern University, noted that the fuselage had to detach without severely damaging the area where Ramesh was seated and the fact that he was in an exit row hastened his escape.
For Viswashkumar Ramesh, survival is bittersweet. He has been calling his survival "a miracle" . He is grappling with the loss of his brother and the horrific scenes he witnessed. "Everything happened in front of my eyes. I don't believe (know) how I survived," Ramesh said.
