Following the tragedy that saw an Air India flight crash and claim 241 lives of those onboard, a simulation has shown how one man survived it.
On Thursday, June 12, 241 people onboard Air India Flight AI-171 and dozens more on the ground were killed after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner slammed into a medical hostel just seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India, en route to London Gatwick.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British passenger seated in 11A, was the sole person to walk away alive from the flaming crash site.
From his hospital bed, Vishwash recounted the nightmare: “I don’t believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could.
“It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others died. The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did.”
He recalled the final seconds before impact: “When the flight took off, within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air. Suddenly, the lights started flickering – green and white. The aircraft wasn’t gaining altitude and was just gliding before it suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.”
And finally, the chaos: “Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise, and then we crashed. It all happened so fast. When I stood up, there were bodies everywhere. I just ran. I don’t even know how I got out of the plane.”
In the aftermath of the tragedy, AiTelly on YouTube has shared a video of how Vishwash was so fortunate.
It explains that Vishwash was sitting in seat 11A, which is in the first row of the economy cabin and located next to an emergency exit.
Paramedic Satinder Singh Sandhu, one of the first to reach the scene, recounted to the Sun: “The first person we spotted was the hostel guard who suffered primary burn injuries. Even as he was dispatched in an ambulance as the first patient from the site, we saw a man coming from out near the building.
“We started shouting at him as he was disorientated and tried to go back to the site, even as the fire and smoke billowed.
“We later got to know that his brother was on the flight and he was trying to go back to check on him. But the team on the spot escorted him and took him to Civil Hospital. His survival is unbelievable.”
Vishwash’s brother, Ajaykumar Ramesh, had been seated just five seats away – and did not survive.