AI 171 tragedy: How seat 11A proved to be lucky for Air India crash survivor Viswashkumar Ramesh
Viswashkumar Ramesh miraculously survived the AI 171 Dreamliner crash near Ahmedabad, India's deadliest single-aircraft disaster. He recalls a violent jolt and the pilot's distress call before leaping from the disintegrating plane.
NEW DELHI: Viswashkumar Ramesh doesn't remember much, just a loud noise, the pilot's voice shouting 'Mayday', and a rush of heat as the aircraft tore apart after crash.
He jumped without thinking.
When he opened his eyes, he was outside, covered in blood, shouting for help. His brother, seated across the aisle in 11J, didn't make it.
Seat 11A turned out to be his lifeline on AI 171, the London-bound Dreamliner that crashed minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing nearly everyone on board.
Viswash, a 40-year-old UK-based businessman from Diu, is the only confirmed survivor.
The British national now lies in bed 11 of ward B7 at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital — dazed, bruised, and asking the one question no one has answered: 'Where is my brother?' From behind a sealed ward, guarded by Gujarat ATS and the crime branch, Viswash's story is a haunting thread of survival from India's deadliest single-aircraft crash.
He recalls only fragments: a violent jolt, the pilot's trembling voice, and a blind leap through smoke and wreckage. 'Nothing more,' he told his cousin.
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utside, video clips captured him stumbling barefoot through twisted debris, shouting, 'Plane fatyo che! (The plane has exploded!).' Just hours earlier, the brothers from Diu had waved goodbye to family, bound for London, where they'd built a life over 15 years.
India's deadliest single-aircraft crash claimed at least 245 lives, including Gujarat's former CM Vijay Rupani and dozens on the ground. The ill-fated Boeing 787-8 slammed into the residential quarters and mess hall of B J Medical College and Civil Hospital around 3km from the end of the runway, killing doctors, students, and passengers in seconds. Rescue teams retrieved over 290 body bags in what became India's first Dreamliner crash and the worst civil aviation tragedy since the 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision.
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