The only survivor of Air India recalls the collapse: “I see people dying in front of my eyes” – Country
The only survivor of the Indian air crash killed more than 240 people on Friday, saying he couldn't believe he was alive as he narrated seeing others die near him while escaping from the emergency exit where he escaped.
In a statement on X, the airline confirmed that a “single survivor” was heading to London's Gatwick Airport in Thursday's crash that took off from Ahmedabad, India.
Survivor Viswash Kumar Ramesh, in seat 11A near the emergency exit, said he managed to squeeze into the broken hatch. He was filmed on the street in a bloody shirt on Thursday with bruises on his face.
Ramesh, a British national in India, told Indian state broadcaster DD News that he “don't believe in my survival” while talking to an exit on a hospital bed on Friday.
“For some time, I thought I would die,” said Ramesh, 40. “But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was still alive, and I tried to untie myself from my seat and escape from my possibilities.
“I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the mistress of the air, and two people I saw near me. … I walked out of the rubble.”
He told the Times of India: “When I got up, there were corpses around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran away.”
“I was sitting on the side of the plane on the ground and I could see that there was space outside the plane, so when my door broke, I tried to escape it through it, and I did,” Ramesh said. “The other side of the plane was blocked by the building wall, so no one could come out from there.”
He recalled the moment before the crash, saying that when the plane took off, “It felt like it was trapped in the air within 5 to 10 seconds.”
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“Suddenly, the lights started to flash – green and white – and then the plane crashed into some institutions there,” he said.
An official at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital said Ramesh suffered burns and bruises and had been watching in the hospital.
“His body was lost by multiple injuries,” Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated Ramesh, told the Associated Press. “But he doesn't seem to be in danger.”
One official added: “His escape…without any serious injury, it was a miracle. He also realized this and was shocked by its trauma.”
Home Minister Amit Shah held Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British plane crash survivor, at a hospital in Ahmedabad, after Air India Air India confirmed that he was the sole survivor of 242 people aboard the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Ministry of the Interior passed AP
Ramesh said he was traveling with his brother Ajay, who was sitting in another row. They are visiting their families in India and returning to the UK when the crash occurs.
He called relatives in Leicester after the crash, and his cousin Ajay Valgi told the BBC. He has a wife and “little boy” at home.
“He just said he was fine, it was OK,” Vargi said. The family “is glad he was okay, but we were still frustrated with the other brother.”
Nayan Kumar Ramesh, another brother of Ramesh, told Sky News that after the crash, Viswash summoned his father to say he survived.
“When he crashed, he videoed my father's video, 'Oh, the plane crashed. I don't know where my brother is. I can't see other passengers. I don't know how I'm still alive, how I left the plane,” he told the exit.
Nayan said he should pick up his brother from Gatwick Airport on Thursday, and the entire family plans to get together this weekend.
“I have no words to describe it,” he said. “It was a miracle that he survived – but what about another miracle of my other brother?”
His family was “destroyed,” he said, adding: “I’m afraid of flying now – even sitting on a plane.”
After the crash, Air India shared an article on X confirming that “the passengers consisted of 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals and 1 Canadian national.”
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson shared his “deep sadness” about the incident in a video posted to X after the crash.
“We are actively working with the authorities,” Wilson said. “A special care worker from Air India is heading to Ahmedabad to provide more support. ”
Some people in a nearby medical school dormitory and others on the ground also fell into the building, police said. Rescuers searched for missing persons and plane parts in the hotel's charred building on Friday to help find the cause of the crash.
Air India said the investigation will take time. Planemaker Boeing said a team of experts is ready to go to India to help with the investigation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Ramesh at the hospital on Friday.
The cause of the crash was that the first wide-body passenger plane of the Boeing Dreamsuit has not been determined, and the Indian Air Minister said a formal investigation has been conducted. Air India has not commented on the cause of the crash.
– Using Reuters and Associated Press documents
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
