Sole survivor of horror India plane crash: 'I saw people dying in front of my eyes'
The sole survivor of the horrific Air India crash on Thursday has revealed what he saw during his miraculous escape.
260 people, both in the plane and a medical college residence, involved in the crash, are feared dead, with Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh being named as the sole survivor.
Mr Ramesh was sitting in seat 11A at the emergency exit. He said that he saw the lights flicker for a few seconds before the plane crashed, just seconds after taking off. The sole survivor of the horrific Air India crash on Thursday has revealed what he saw during his miraculous escape. Pic: Narendra Modi Youtube Channel/AFP via Getty Images
'When the flight took off, within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air,' Mr Ramesh told the Hindustan Times. 'Suddenly, the lights started flickering – green and white – then the plane rammed into some establishment that was there.'
Thanks to his emergency exit seat, Mr Ramesh miraculously managed to get out of the plane and escape with impact injuries, with him later being hospitalised.
However, he spoke about the things he saw while leaving the plane. Mr Ramesh was the sole survivor of the crash, where 260 people are feared dead. Pic: Ministry of Home Affairs India/PA Wire
'When I saw the exit, I thought I could come out. I tried, and I did. Maybe the people who were on the other side of the plane weren't able to,' Mr Ramesh said. 'I don't know how I survived.
'I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me … I walked out of the rubble.'
53 British nationals were aboard the plane, with parts of the plane being filmed embedded in BJ Medical College. Pieces of the aircraft's landing gear, fuselage and tail could all be seen protruding from the building. The Air India flight AI171 just took off from Ahmedabad, but crashed seconds later into BJ Medical college. Pic: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock
It's understood that Mr Ramesh is a UK national who was in India to visit his family. He was returning to the UK along with his brother on Thursday morning.
He added: 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance, and brought me to the hospital.'
It is the first crash involving a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Flightradar24 said flight tracking data shows that after taking off, the plane reached a maximum altitude of 625ft, which is about 425ft above the airport.
It then started to descend at a rate of 475 feet per minute.
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