‘Why me?': Six extraordinary stories of sole plane crash survivors after British man walks away from India Air disaster

The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people somehow walked from the wreckage of the aircraft after it crashed in the city of Ahmedabad.
Ramesh Viswashkumar, who was in seat 11A near the emergency exit, and managed to escape through the broken hatch. He was filmed after Thursday's disaster limping on the street in a blood-stained T-shirt with bruises on his face.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had plummeted soon after take-off and erupted in a ball of fire, killing everyone else onboard.
As extraordinary as it seems, the 40-year-old Briton's miraculous escape isn't the first story of a sole airplane crash survivor. There have been dozens of stories shared, from as far back as 1929, when 34-year-old Lou Foote survived a crash killing 14 others in Newark, New Jersey.
But despite escaping brushes with death, the reality of such lucky escapes is often complicated. More recent survivors, while celebrated in the media, have spoken of life-long feelings of guilt and sorrow following their escapes.
Here we take a look at six survivor stories:
Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367
When: 26 January 1972
Who: Vesna Vulovic
'Whenever I think of the accident, I have a prevailing, grave feeling of guilt for surviving it and I cry.' For Serbian air stewardess Vesna her survival onboard the fateful Yugoslav Airlines to Zagreb haunted her for the rest of her life.
Vesna's broken body was found among the wreckage after the aircraft, travelling from Copenhagen, fell into woods near Srbská Kamenice in the former Czechoslovakia, killing 23 passengers and four crew.
Vensa, who fell 33,300 ft without a parachute, was paralysed from the waist down but, after two operations, she learned to walk again just a year after the crash.
Yugoslav officials claimed separatists from a Croatian fascist movement, the Ustashi, had planted the bomb on the plane, which blew it up in the sky.
But while Vesna became a Serbian heroine, she went on to live a secluded life. Back in 2012, The Independent interviewed her from her dilapidated flat in Belgrade, where she shared the struggles of many Serbs in harsh economic conditions.
'I don't know what to say when people say I was lucky ... life is so hard today," she said.
She passed away more than 40 years after the crash, in 2016 aged 66.
Northwest Airlines Flight 255
When: August 16, 1987
Who: Cecelia Cichan, aged four
'I remember feeling angry and survivor's guilt,' said Cecelia, when she looked back on the crash which killed her parents and her brother, along with 153 other people. 'Why didn't my brother survive? Why me?' she told CNN.
Now 41, Cecelia, who cannot remember the crash, says she bears a tattoo on her wrist of an airplane 'as a reminder of where I come from'.
Then aged just four, Cecelia Cichan was travelling home to Tempe, Arizona alongside her mother, father and six-year-old brother.
Tragedy stuck when the left wing clipped a light pole after takeoff. The aircraft rolled 90 degrees left and sheared the top off a rental car building before crashing into a busy road where it went up in flames.
While searching the wreckage, firemen found Cichan still strapped into her seat, having sustained third-degree burns and fractures to her skull, collarbone and left leg.
Firefighters discovered Cecelia still strapped into her seat among the wreckage. She suffered sustained third-degree burns and fractures to her skull, collarbone and left leg.
LANSA Flight 508
When: 24 December 1971
Who: Juliane Koepcke, aged 17
When Juliane Koepcke and her mother Maria boarded LANSA Flight 508 from Lima to Pucallpa in Peru they were angry at the flight already being seven hours late.
Nevertheless, they were looking forward to reuniting with their father and husband for the Christmas holidays in 1971.
But the aircraft was hit by lightning mid-air, causing a fire on the right wing which then fell off. As the plane dived down into the Peruvian rainforest, Juliane found herself outside the aircraft in a freefall, dropping 10,000ft still strapped to her seat.
She fell unconscious before waking up the next day with a broken collarbone and cuts to her legs. Fourteen other people, out of the 92 on board, survived the crash but died while awaiting rescue. Among them was her mother.
Juliane later told the BBC: 'I found out that she [Maria Koepcke] also survived the crash but was badly injured and she couldn't move. She died several days later. I dread to think what her last days were like.'
When: 30 June 2009
Who: Bahia Bakari, aged 12
Young Bahia Bakari could hardly swim, said her father. But she managed to cling on to aeroplane wreckage in the sea for 13 hours before rescue after an Airbus A310-324 crashed off the north coast of Grande Comore, Comoros in 2009. The plane had taken off from Sana'a in Yemen when it came down around 1.50am.
Close to landing on the island nation in the Indian Ocean, French aviation investigators found that errors by the crew on the flight commands brought the plane into a stall over the sea. Other factors were a lack of training for the crew and windy conditions.
Onboard the flight was 153 people, including 66 French nationals and Bahia's mother.
Yet despite the crash, Bahia said it has not prevented her from flying again. 'I tell myself there's little chance it will happen to me a second time," she told France 3.
Describing the crash, she said: 'We were told that we were going to land and there were jolts in the plane. No one seemed worried. Before the crash, my mother just said to me 'Did you fasten your seatbelt?'"
Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771
Who: Ruben van Assouw, aged nine
Date: 12 May 2010
One of the youngest sole survivors of a plane crash, Ruben van Assouw was returning from a safari holiday with his family in South Africa when their Airbus A330-200 crashed.
The plane, which was heading from Johannesburg, South Africa to Tripoli, Libya, came down just short of the stopover airport runway in the Libyan capital of Tripoli in 2010.
The child suffered leg fractures, but remained in a stable condition despite the aircraft hitting the ground with such force that smouldering shards of metal were thrown half-a-mile from the point of impact.
He was discovered some way from the crashed aircraft, semi-conscious and still strapped in his aeroplane seat. Reuben lost his parents and his brother in the crash. In total, 103 passengers and crew died, including UK, French and US nationals.
Despite reports the boy was subsequently looked after by his aunt and uncle, little is known about him since. Four years ago, a book was published, called Dear Edward, that was partially based on his crash survivor story.
Global Air Flight 0972
Who: Mailen Diaz Almaguer, aged 19
When: 18 May 2018
Teenager Mailen Diaz Almaguer was on a domestic flight flight from the Cuban capital Havana with her husband when it crashed shortly after take-off in 2018. Eyewitnesses said they saw one of the plane's engines on fire before it disappeared behind trees and crashed into a field, according to the New York Times.
Onboard was 105 people, including at last five children, according to reports. The plane had been headed to Holguin, Cuba.
Three passengers were sent to Calixto Garcia Hospital alive, but only Mailen Diaz Almaguer survived. During 70 days of treatment to save her life, her left leg was amputated.
In the years since, the young woman, who now lives in Havana having bought a home with the compensation she received, has shared updates on her recovery. She said she relied on her Christian faith to overcome physical and mental challenges caused by the crash.

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