Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14, watches in awe as Yashasvi Jaiswal celebrates century

Air India Crash: Miracle Survivor Vishwas Kumar Ramesh Discharged, to Perform Brother's Last Rites
Air India crash survivor Viswas Kumar Ramesh has been discharged from Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and is heading home to perform the last rites of his younger brother, who perished in the April 12 crash. Ramesh, the only survivor among 242 passengers on the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was flung out of the aircraft after it broke apart mid-takeoff. His seat, 11A, detached and landed near ground level, sparing him the deadly fireball. Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, called his survival a miracle and expressed disbelief at how he made it out alive. A viral video earlier showed him emerging from the BJ Medical campus minutes after the crash. Ramesh is now returning home not to celebrate life, but to bid farewell to his brother. PM Modi and HM Amit Shah had visited him during his recovery. As he prepares for the cremation, his story remains a powerful symbol of resilience in the face of overwhelming tragedy.#AirIndiaCrash #ViswashkumarRamesh #Boeing787Crash #MiracleSurvivor #BJMedicalTragedy #IndiaUK #ModiAhmedabadVisit #AviationDisaster #CrashSurvivorStory #PlaneCrashIndia #toi #toibharat #bharat #breakingnews #indianews
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Indian Express

2 hours ago

• Indian Express

‘There was a wall of fire… seen nothing like this before': How Ahmedabad's firefighters dealt with plane crash aftermath

On the afternoon of June 12, an officer working with the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) received an emergency call. With the number of fire cases rising in the scorching summer, responding to such emergencies is par for the course for the city's fire officers. But what this officer heard next was something nothing could have prepared any of them for: A plane crash. 'All odds were against us: From the traffic to the public, to the wind direction and the intensity of the fire. Nothing had prepared us for this. But there was a job to be done, so we got down to it,' said another AFES officer, one of the several team leaders who answered the call in response to the crash of Air India flight AI 171 that resulted in the deaths of 241 out of 242 passengers and at least 19 ground casualties. The first call 'At 1.43 pm, the fire control room received a call from the airport hotline about a plane crash. We dispatched first responder teams from Shahpur, Nikol and Naroda fire stations and then informed the entire force through wireless, asking them to send everyone possible to the crash site,' said a fireman close to the nerve centre of the operations. But the very first job, however, was to actually locate the plane. Sources told The Indian Express, 'We received hundreds of phone calls from the public that day. The people, calling in panic, gave disparate information. While some said the fire was at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, others said it was in Meghaninagar. There was a lot of confusion but our teams found its way using the smoke, which followed the crash, as a beacon.' The first responders then called the control room and relayed the scale of the accident after which a full-scale deployment was ordered. The fog of disaster Around this time, some of the officers were at the Riverfront House, working on the recruitment process of firefighters, when a driver saw a large plume of smoke over the horizon. He ran inside the building and informed the officers. A mid-level officer, who was almost 8.5 km away from the crash site when the emergency call came, said, 'In the initial call, we were told that there had been a crash-landing of an aircraft and so, we coordinated to reach the airport circle. However, we saw that the smoke was not coming from the airport. We checked with the control room again and were told to head to Meghaninagar. We reached in 22 minutes despite dealing with severe traffic jams.' Apart from the traffic congestion, what made the task difficult for the firefighters was the crowd of curious onlookers, swelling by the minute. 'It was not just vehicles that were parked on both sides of this road… hundreds of people, too, had gathered to witness the tragedy. We had to disembark from the firefighting vehicles and while some of us rushed towards the site on foot, others had to move people out of the way so that the firefighting vehicles and water bowsers could enter the area,' said another officer. All the officers that The Indian Express spoke to requested anonymity. Wall of fire and smoke 'When we finally reached the crash site, there was nothing but a wall of fire and smoke, and an intense radiating heat … Even the wind was blowing against us and with it, the heat and the smoke,' said an officer. Another officer, among the first to reach the site, said, 'When we reached there, we couldn't see anything… there were just flames. We couldn't even make out the hostel buildings from the fire. We didn't immediately understand the situation but wore our overalls and rushed to the site.' Said an officer, 'On approaching the site, we saw the debris of the aircraft… My first thought was to rescue people who may still be alive inside the building. So, our team rushed in there. Just at the entrance, a piece of debris was on fire with a couple of LPG cylinders lying close to it. We first removed them to a safe place.' Describing the scene inside one of the buildings, the officer said, 'We saw personnel from the Army's Medical Corp also trying to look for survivors. The army men had reached before the firefighters as the military hospital is right behind the hostel. The aircraft's tail had actually collided with a chimney on its premises before hitting the mess building.' By the time the AFES reached the hostel campus, the Airport Firefighting Unit was already at work. The city's firefighters promptly took over. Said another officer, 'We first evacuated around 30 people from the first two hostel buildings next to which the majority of the aircraft had crashed. Initially, we didn't even notice the mess building… We were concerned with the four burning hostel buildings since the mess was not on fire. We began firefighting in the hostel residences.' Notably, the mess building is located at a short distance from the cluster of four residential hostel buildings – Atulyam. On the top floor of a hostel building, a team saw two bodies lying next to each other in the passageway. It looked like the two individuals had tripped while attempting to escape the building. 'The bodies were completely charred,' said a member of this team, adding, 'We sought help from the military personnel to bring the bodies down but, at that point, the building was still on fire and they were not dressed for the situation like we were. Meanwhile, a few firefighters arrived with bedsheets in which they wrapped the two bodies along with another one we found inside the building, and brought them down.' Describing the devastation wrought on the building, an officer said the right side of the aircraft had sheared through the corner pillars and beams 'like a knife' and aviation fuel had led to the entire premises 'burning furiously'. The next task was to deal with the mess building, where the tail of the aircraft was lodged. An officer said, 'It was only when we reached the roof of one of the hostel buildings that we noticed something on the top of the mess. We immediately dispatched a team there.' Finding the fuselage After clearing the first two buildings, a team approached the debris of the aircraft lying between them and spotted the left engine of the Dreamliner. The fuselage, said the officer, was unrecognisable. 'There, we found the bodies of three children huddled together.' Firefighting at the site continued for another 2-3 hours. So, when personnel began pulling the bodies out of the seats, most of the AFES officers were still involved in dousing the massive blaze and multiple blasts caused by the crash. 'We saw charred bodies, hands, legs, intestines everywhere. Some bodies were heaped on each other. Others were fused into each other to the extent we couldn't tell if it was one body or two… many bodies had missing parts lying far away,' said an officer. Another officer said, 'Most of the metal was so hot that we could hardly touch anything even after two hours… By 8.15 pm, the firefighters were drained, both emotionally and physically, to the extent that we could hardly bear to even speak to each other.' The Indian Express attempted to reach out to Chief Fire Officer Amit Dongre regarding the work done by the AFES but he remained unavailable for comment. In a government statement on June 16, Dongre was quoted as saying, 'The fire station teams of Naroda and Shahpur, which reached the scene first, gave a picture of the severity of the situation. In addition to Ahmedabad city, help was also sought from firefighters from Gandhinagar, Kheda, Anand, Vadodara, Gift City and the Army to control the emergency situation. More than 100 firefighting vehicles were deployed at the scene within a short period of time, due to which the rescue operation could be completed in just four hours.' The statement said that 7.50 lakh litres of water had been used to control and cool the fire. Modern resources like Gajraj (a kind of bowser) made the fire-fighting work easier, it added. One of the officers quoted above said around 650 trained personnel were involved in the firefighting operation. No firefighter suffered any injury or damage, he added. Story of two crashes Rajesh Bhatt, retired interim CFO of the AFES, who was a Station Officer at the time of the 1988 crash, told The Indian Express, 'At that time, the aircraft had crashed just short of the runway into the Kotarpur water works located to its north-east … There was nobody on the ground … At that time also, we initially did not realise where the plane had crashed.' He further said, 'In 1988, there was less fuel in the aircraft because it was landing, and not taking off like AI 171. So, the fire was also not as major as this one. Despite that, in my 40-year-long career, I have never been as scared as I was on that day. The scale of the disaster, the condition of the bodies, to pick them up and transport them, was the hardest thing we ever had to do in the line of duty. What our firefighters have done today is extremely commendable.'

India.com

4 hours ago

• India.com

Stage set for world to celebrate International Day of Yoga

(Image courtesy: X/@IndianEmbTokyo) New Delhi: Several countries across the globe organised Yoga sessions on Friday, marking the one-day countdown to the 11th International Day of Yoga (IDY). The Embassy of India in Nepal, in association with Lumbini Development Trust, organised a large-scale Yoga demonstration at Lumbini – the revered birthplace of Lord Buddha and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ambassador of India to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, highlighted that Yoga, an ancient practice with its origins in India, has grown into a global movement, particularly following the United Nations' declaration of June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014. He remarked that Lumbini, widely regarded as a symbol of peace and harmony, provides a truly fitting setting to celebrate the timeless values of Yoga. The occasion was a part of a series of events being conducted by the Embassy of India to celebrate the 11th International Day of Yoga across various cities in Nepal. In Thailand, students of St. Andrews International School engaged in a yoga session highlighting the spirit of Yoga for 'One Earth, One Health'. 'Reflecting the spirit of Yoga for One Earth One Health, students of St. Andrews International School, Thailand, participated in an energizing yoga session organised by Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, Embassy of India, Bangkok,' Indian Embassy in Bangkok posted on X. In Austria, the celebration of IDY by the Indian Embassy in Vienna in partnership with Stadt Wien was featured prominently by ORF, Austria's national broadcasting service in its morning show 'Guten Morgen Österreich'. In Saudi Arabia, students from International Indian Schools in Taif and Jubail cities participated in a Yoga session embodying harmony, wellness, and togetherness. 'In celebration of International Day of Yoga, students from International Indian Schools in Taif and Jubail cities organised an energising Yoga session. Their vibrant spirit embodied the harmony, wellness, and togetherness that Yoga brings to our lives,' the Indian Embassy in Riyadh posted on X. On the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, the Consulate General of India in Shanghai organised a well-attended IDY workshop and symposium for participants. In Japan, the 11th IDY countdown was celebrated at the Osaka Expo 2025. 'Ambassador of India to Japan Sibi George and Vice Governor of Osaka Prefecture Shigeki Watanabe inaugurated the celebrations and joined the collective yoga session alongside thousands of yoga enthusiasts,' the Indian Embassy in Tokyo posted on X. Marking one day countdown to IDY, the High Commission of India in Kenya organised a special yoga session at Ulinzi Sports Complex, Nairobi, for the Foreign Affairs officials in Kenya, as part of their Annual Staff Wellness Day. Focusing on the holistic health benefits of yoga, the session received an enthusiastic response and saw participation from over 300 officials. In his 'Mann ki Baat' address on March 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had emphasised the importance of fitness in daily life and praised initiatives like the International Yoga Day. While sharing India's vision for a healthier world population, PM Modi mentioned the theme of IDY 2025 as 'Yoga for One Earth One Health', which ensures holistic health for the whole world. The 2025 theme highlights Yoga's role in promoting physical, mental, and environmental well-being, aligning with global calls for sustainability and unity. It builds on a decade of success since the United Nations recognised June 21 as International Day of Yoga, following India's proposal in 2014.

India Today

5 hours ago

• India Today

231 plane crash victims identified through DNA tests, 210 bodies returned to family

More than a week after the devastating Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, authorities have identified 231 victims through DNA testing. Of these, 210 bodies have been handed over to their families so far.'Till Friday evening, 231 DNA samples have been matched and relatives have been contacted. So far, the mortal remains of 210 victims have been handed over to families,' Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, was quoted as saying by news agency those returned to their families are 199 passengers—155 Indians, 36 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals, and 1 Canadian. The remaining 11 were local residents who were killed when the aircraft slammed into buildings near the crash site. At present, 21 identified bodies are still at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. While DNA matches have been confirmed for all of them, the formalities are still pending. Ten families are expected to collect the remains by Saturday morning. Another three will be handed over after necessary air clearance. The remaining eight are linked to pending DNA confirmations of other of the deceased were earlier handed over without DNA testing as their identities were clearly established. Additionally, three local residents succumbed to injuries during treatment, bringing the total number of ground fatalities to crash, which occurred on June 12, claimed over 270 lives making it one of the deadliest air disasters in India's recent history. Of the 242 passengers and crew members onboard the doomed flight, 241 died in the crash. The lone survivor was Vishwas Kumar, a 28-year-old tech consultant seated near the emergency exit on seat London-bound Air India flight AI-171 had barely taken off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport when it plunged into a medical college complex in the Meghaninagar area. The impact was so severe that many bodies were charred or mangled beyond recognition, prompting the need for extensive DNA Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has recovered the black box of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which will be key to understanding what caused the aircraft to go down so soon after InMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Ahmedabad Plane Crash