Air India plane crash survivor describes his extraordinary escape: "Everything happened in front of my eyes"

CBS News

2 days ago

Out of the 242 people who were on board Air India flight AI171 when the plane crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday, moments after takeoff, just one is believed to have survived. A day later, that survivor, British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh, spoke about the moment the plane "came to a standstill" in mid-air, and how he escaped from seat 11A and walked out of the wreckage with a burnt hand.
"Everything happened in front of my eyes. I don't believe (know) how I survived," Ramesh, 40, said from his hospital bed on Friday. "For some time I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive. ... It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others (died)."
The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash, Vishawashkumar Ramesh, is interviewed from his hospital bed in Ahmedabad.
Doordashan/Reuters
His brother had been sitting right next to him on the flight, Ramesh's cousin, Ajay Valgi, told CBS News partner network BBC News, after he said he spoke to Ramesh on the phone. The brother's whereabouts are unknown.
"After the takeoff, within a minute, it felt like the plane came to a standstill (in air) for 5 to 10 seconds," Ramesh said. "The green and white (cabin) lights turned on in the flight. I could feel engine thrust increasing to go up, but it crashed with speed into the (building)."
Once he realized what had happened, he said he tried to unbuckle from his seat and get out. Local media outlets who spoke with him said he had a ticket for the flight showing he was seated in 11A, which police also confirmed. It was right by an exit row door.
Infographic showing the seat plan for the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner, locating seat 11A, where the sole survivor was seated on flight AI171 when it crashed on June 12, 2025.
Nicholas Shearman/AFP/Getty Images
Ramesh said the side of the plane he was on — the left side of the aircraft when facing forward — landed on the ground floor of the building, a hostel where medical students lived.
"I could see there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through a little space and I did," he said. "On the opposite side was the building wall, so nobody could have escaped. ... I don't know how I managed to escape."
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, went down shortly after departing at 1:38 p.m. local time. It had been scheduled to land at London's Gatwick Airport, but live tracking website Flight Radar said it stopped receiving a signal from the aircraft just seconds after it took off and only reached an altitude of 625 feet before it started to descend.
There is video showing the plane flying low over buildings before it disappears behind them and a large explosion is seen. The plane itself did not appear to be on fire or explode prior to going behind the buildings.
The vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association told The Associated Press that part of the plane hit the dining area of B.J. Medical College. At least five medical students were killed and nearly 50 people who had been in the building were injured. Footage of the aftermath shows plates and cups filled with food and drinks still on the tables, covered in debris.
"Did you walk out of it?" a reporter asked Ramesh, to which he replied, "Yes."
"When the fire broke out, my left hand got burnt," Ramesh said. "Then an ambulance brought me here to the hospital."
Dr. Dhaval Gameti at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital told the AP that while Ramesh "was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body... he seems to be out of danger." According to the Hindustan Times, Ramesh suffered "impact injuries" to his chest, face and feet.
An official said Friday that one of the "black boxes" from the aricraft — the flight data recorder or voice recorder — has been recovered from the wreckage.
"This marks an important step forward in the investigation," Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, the Indian Union Minister of Civil Aviation, said. "This will significantly aid the enquiry into the incident."