Joy and grief for lone India crash survivor's family
The UK-based family of the lone survivor of the Air India crash were torn on Friday between joy at his miracle escape and grief at the loss of his brother.
"We are happy Vishwash has been saved, but on the other hand we are just heartbroken about Ajay," his cousin told AFP outside the family home in central Leicester.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is believed to be the only person to have survived the crash when Air India Flight 171 plummeted from the sky shortly after taking off from the northern Indian city of Ahmedabad.
His brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh, was on the same flight, but is believed to have perished in the disaster. There were 242 passengers and crew on the plane, including 53 British citizens.
At least 24 people were killed on the ground, officials said, after the aeroplane landed on a canteen building where students were having lunch.
Since Thursday's tragedy, the small Leicester street where Ramesh's parents and younger brother lived has been flooded with visitors.
Ramesh lives not far away with his wife and son, his cousin Hiren Kantilal, 19, told AFP.
Ajay also lived in the town, one of the oldest in England, and the two brothers ran a confectionary business together.
"They are wonderful people, and heartful people. They are greatest men I have ever seen in my life, both of them," said Kantilal.
The brothers were returning to the UK after spending a few weeks on holiday in India, and the family had been waiting to go and pick them up at Gatwick airport.
- 'I am totally fine' -
Shortly after the crash, they were shocked when Ramesh, who had reportedly been in seat 11A, called his father to say he was alive. Ajay was seated at the other end of the row.
"Our plane has been crashed," Ramesh told his dad, according to his cousin.
"He was bleeding all over him, in the face and everything, and he said: 'I am just waiting for my brother and I don't know how I get out of the plane'.
"He said: 'do not worry about me, try to find about Ajay Kumar' and he said: 'I am totally fine'."
Kantilal said his cousin had waited for about 10 to 15 minutes seeking his brother, and then was whisked away to hospital by the rescue services.
Images which went viral on social media apparently showed Ramesh walking away from the wreckage of the 787-8 Boeing Dreamliner, and have been splashed across the front pages of British media along with a photo of him in his hospital bed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Ramesh on Friday at the hospital where he is being treated for burns and other injuries, footage on his YouTube channel showed.
"Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn't believe how I managed to come out alive from that," Ramesh said from his hospital bed, speaking in Hindi to national broadcaster DD News.
His parents had also been desperately trying to contact his brother Ajay on Thursday. "The call was going through, but no-one was answering the call," Kantilal said.
At the family home, relatives were frantically scanning their phones to try to buy a flight to Ahmedabad later on Friday afternoon.
Downing Street said that the foreign ministry had been in touch with Ramesh to offer him consular assistance.
mhc/alm/jkb/bc
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
King wears black armband in memory of India air disaster at Trooping the Colour
The King wore a black armband in tribute to those killed in the Air India plane crash as the Trooping the Colour ceremony staged in his honour began. Charles' official birthday was marked with a display of military pomp and pageantry but at the King's request the event acknowledged the aviation disaster that claimed the lives of 241 passengers and crew, including more than 50 British nationals, as well as around 30 people on the ground. The head of state and his wife left Buckingham Palace in a carriage at the head of a procession travelling along The Mall and into Horse Guards Parade where hundreds of guardsmen were on parade. The appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales' children sparked cheering when they were spotted in a carriage with their mother, Kate. Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis followed the King and Queen, with other coaches carrying the Duchess of Edinburgh, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. Riding behind the King were the royal colonels wearing black armbands – the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards; the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals; and the Duke of Edinburgh as Colonel of the Scots Guards. The Royal Procession was accompanied by the Sovereign's Escort of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and the sounds of the Band of the Household Cavalry, led by two shire drum horses bearing solid silver kettle drums. Senior officers taking part in Trooping also wore black armbands as a mark of respect for the aviation victims, as did the coachmen and women from the Royal Mews, driving carriages carrying members of the royal family or riding on a coach's lead horse as a postilion. A minute's silence will be observed after the King has inspected the guardsmen on the parade ground. It will be signalled by a bugler sounding the Last Post and will end with the Reveille. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the King had requested amendments to the Trooping the Colour programme 'as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy'. In 2017, Trooping was held a few days after the Grenfell Tower blaze and the loss of life was marked by a minute's silence in a decision taken by Queen Elizabeth II. George, Charlotte and Louis joined other members of the monarchy in the former office of the Duke of Wellington to watch the Trooping the Colour spectacle in honour of their grandfather, the King. Kate took her place next to the King and Queen on the dais, in her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards – a symbolic position and one she was unable to take up last year because she was receiving cancer treatment, and instead watched the ceremony with her children. Trooping the Colour is as much a social occasion as a ceremonial celebration of the King's official birthday, and stands around Horse Guards Parade were filled with around 8,000 wives, girlfriends and the parents of the guardsmen and officers on parade. The colour – regimental flag – being trooped this year was the King's Colour of Number 7 Company, Coldstream Guards, also known as the Sovereign's bodyguard and which is celebrating its 375th anniversary. The King's first duty was to inspect the troops and he was followed by the royal colonels, William, Anne and Edward, as he travelled in a carriage with the Queen, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, past the servicemen. The minute's silence was observed when Charles and Camilla returned to the dais, following an announcement to the spectators and a bugler sounding the Last Post. Charles, Camilla and Kate stood still looking ahead and the silence was broken by a helicopter flying overhead, with the moment of reflection ending with the Reveille being played.
43 minutes ago
Death toll in Indian plane crash climbs to 270 as search teams find more bodies
AHMEDABAD, India -- Search and recovery teams continued scouring the site of one of India's worst aviation disasters for a third day after the Air India flight fell from the sky and killed at least 270 people in Gujarat state, officials said Saturday. The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived. Recovery teams working until late Friday found at least 25 more bodies in the debris, officials said. Dr. Dhaval Gameti at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad told The Associated Press the facility had received 270 bodies, adding that the lone surviving passenger was still under observation for some of his wounds. 'He is doing very well and will be ready to be discharged anytime soon,' Gameti said Saturday. Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognizable. Some relatives expressed frustration Saturday that the process was taking too long. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process. 'Where are my children? Did you recover them?' asked Rafiq Abdullah, whose nephew, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were on the flight. 'I will have to ask questions. Government is not answering these questions." Another relative persistently asked hospital staff when his relative's body would be handed over to the family for last rites. 'Give us the body,' the relative insisted. Investigators on Friday recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, which was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site and likely will lead to clues about the cause of the accident. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said it had started working with 'full force' to extract the data. The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the U.K.-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator for both the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, said investigators should be able to answer some important questions about what caused the crash as soon as next week as long as the flight data recorder is in good shape. Investigators likely are looking at whether wing flaps were set correctly, the engine lost power, alarms were going off inside the cockpit and if the plane's crew correctly logged information about the hot temperature outside and the weight of the fuel and passengers, Guzzetti said. Mistakes in the data could result in the wing flaps being set incorrectly, he said. Thursday's Air India crash involved a 12-year-old Boeing 787. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.
Business Upturn
an hour ago
- Business Upturn
Ahmedabad Air India crash: Flight AI-171 crashes one minute after takeoff at 1:40 PM, Says aviation secretary
A devastating tragedy struck on Thursday afternoon when Air India flight AI-171, bound for London Gatwick, crashed just one minute after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. The crash occurred at approximately 1:40 PM, as confirmed by Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha during the government's first official press conference on the incident. The Government of India held its first official briefing on the crash, led by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu. Officials began the press conference with a minute of silence to honour the lives lost in the accident. According to preliminary reports, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner collided with a residential building housing doctors, resulting in the deaths of 241 out of 242 people on board. Only one survivor has been confirmed, and is currently receiving critical medical care. The aircraft had no reported issues prior to the incident and had successfully completed earlier legs of its journey from Paris to Delhi and Delhi to Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Air India Ahmedabad Crash Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
