Heartbreaking moment British Air India crash survivor limps as he carries the coffin of his brother who died next to him with 240 others on doomed flight
The tragic sole survivor of the Air India crash tragedy has today carried the coffin of his brother, who died in the devastating incident.
British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from Leicester, had plasters on his face and was walking with a limp as he held up the casket of his sibling Ajay at the ceremony in Gujarat.
The brothers were both onboard AI171, which last week crashed in a densely populated part of the west India city of Ahmedabad.
Vishwash, who was sitting in seat 11A, escaped the wreckage moments before it was engulfed by flames.
But despite being only one seat over, his brother, who he had been staying with in India, was tragically killed along with 240 others onboard the Gatwick-bound plane and dozens more on the ground.
Ajay's coffin was adorned with colourful flowers, and was carried by several mourners, including his brother Vishwash.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner left at 1:17 pm local time and was seen taking to the skies at 1:38 pm at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
But within seconds, it had lost all power and crashed into a residential area in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.
The aircraft, which was bound for London Gatwick, exploded in a fireball.
The jet smashed into the doctors' hostel of BJ Medical College, sending debris, smoke and fire hundreds of feet into the air.
Footage exclusively obtained by MailOnline showed Vishwash tried going back to the site of the inferno to save his brother.
Vishwash told the first emergency service worker on site: 'My family member is in there, my brother and he's burning to death. I have to save him.'
Emergency worker Satinder Singh Sandhu said: 'I walked nearer to Mr Ramesh, grabbed him by the arm and led him away to a waiting ambulance. I had no idea that he was a passenger on the plane and thought he was a resident of the hostel or a passer-by.
'He was very disoriented and shocked and was limping. There was also blood on his face, but he was able to speak.
'He told the paramedics that he was flying to London when the plane fell and that he wanted to go back to save his family.'
Authorities investigating the deadly Air India crash believe the doomed flight was using an emergency-power generator.
People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India's Gujarat state, June 12, 2025
The preliminary finding has raised questions into whether the plane's engines were working properly during take-off.
The Boeing was not much more than 400ft above ground when the two pilots experienced pilots onboard apparently lost power in both engines.
They then had 17 agonising seconds to wrestle with the controls before their state-of-the-art plane smashed into a medical college packed with doctors, sending a fireball soaring into the sky.
As investigations into the disaster are underway, one focus of the probe into the crash is whether the plane suffered a loss or reduction of thrust.
Emergency systems used in planes are known as ram air turbines. They are small propellers that drop from the bottom of the plane's fuselage to operate as a backup generator.
These emergency systems usually deploy automatically in flight if both engines have failed or if hydraulic system pressures are low, and can deploy if cockpit instruments lose power.
Sources close to the investigation suggest that findings from the crash indicate that the plane's flaps and other flight-control surfaces had been configured for takeoff, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Authorities investigating the tragic aeroplane crash are also studying the black boxes of the plane, and are also looking at whether it was overloaded.
Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing.
Amit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert, said the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, are crucial to piece together the sequence of events.
The cockpit voice recorder records pilots' conversation, emergency alarms and any distress signal made before a crash. The plane's digital flight data recorder stores information related to engine and control settings. Both devices are designed to survive a crash.
'The data will reveal everything,' Singh said, adding that the technical details could be corroborated by the cockpit voice recorder that would help investigators know of any communication between air traffic control and the pilots.
India's aviation regulatory body has said pilots Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder made a mayday call before the crash.
Singh said the investigating authorities will scan CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash.
Additionally, Singh said, the investigators will also study the pilot training records, total load of the aircraft, thrust issues related to the plane's engine, as well as its worthiness in terms of past performances and any previously reported issues.
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The Independent
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- The Independent
British survivor of Air India crash seen carrying brother's casket at funeral
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BBC News
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Daily Mail
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