Experts reveal all after Air India's sole survivor escaped

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

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A British man sitting in seat 11A survived the fatal Air India Flight 171 to the awes of the world as many said it was an un-survivable flight. Now, experts have discussed whether such 'miracle seats' that can survive a plane crash actually exist. When Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 40, emerged from the wreckage of the Air India flight alive on Thursday, the world declared it a miracle as the other 241 passengers tragically perished. 'I don't know how I came out of it alive', Ramesh, who was traveling with his brother from India to London , said from his hospital bed.
His boarding pass, which he managed to take with him, showed he was sitting in seat 11A, which has since been dubbed the miracle seat following the gruesome crash of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Several factors, including his seat position, could have played into his miraculous survival, experts said. Ramesh was sitting in a window seat in the emergency exit row, meaning he had the easiest access to get off the plane the fastest. 'I do think it had something to do with it,' Ella Atkins, the head of the Crofton Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department at Virginia Tech, told DailyMail.com, calling his survival an 'extraordinary miracle.'
'He happened to be ejected in a way that didn't kill him.' The 58-year-old Virginian, who has been an engineer since 1988, said one's placement inside an aircraft 'absolutely' matters when it comes to surviving a horrific crash, such as Ramesh did. However, it's nearly impossible for passengers to preselect a seat that's going to save them as a plane can crash in so many different ways, the aerospace engineer said. Unsurprisingly, for frontal impacts, it's safest to be in the back of the plane. For tail impacts, the front. For a fuselage problem, the middle is the most dangerous spot as that's where the fuel is located.
If the plane nosedives into the ground, crashes while upside down or lands in the middle of the ocean, the likelihood of a 'miracle seat' saving you from death diminishes to near zero. Without having some magical foresight, passengers cannot predetermine the exact seat that has the highest potential of saving their lives. 'I'm not going out [of my way] to ask for 11A after this,' Atkin, a frequent flyer, said. 'If I had to choose a place not to sit, it'd be first class.' However, that doesn't stop the professor from snagging the upgrade every time Delta offers it to her because air travel continues to be exceptionally safe. The logic about economy being safer centers on the fact that most plane crashes are frontal impacts - with business and first class seats usually situated at the front of the cabin.
'Any aircraft can crash like any car can,' she told DailyMail.com 'I don't think there's a miracle seat... Every accident is so unique.' For a December 2024 Jeju Air flight, a 737 plane that slammed into a concrete barrier and burst into flames, the 'miracle seats' happened to be crew spots at the back of the plane - quite far from the general location Ramesh's seat would have been on that flight. A 737 is a small plane with a single aisle with two rows, while a 787 has a dual aisle and three rows of seating. Some experts say this can make a difference in some crashes.
In the instance of a water landing, you're more likely to find a miracle seat on a single aisle aircraft because their fuselages are slightly more rigid and less likely to tear apart on impact. One prime example is the 2009 'Miracle on the Hudson' crash, when an Airbus A320 crash landed on the Hudson River fully intact after a bird strike caued engine failure. All 78 aboard survived. However, the size of the aircraft doesn't matter when it comes to commercial flights, Atkin said, as they 'tend to be extremely safe' and are 'painstakingly designed and tested.'
The chance of survival doesn't necessarily change based on the size for commercial planes. However, single-engine planes, like Cessnas, have a much higher crash rate. 'It's clear in this case that something went wrong,' Atkins said of the Air India flight. Atkins believes 'both engines failed for this to happen' and said that's an 'extremely rare' occurrence. She reminds nervous flyers to 'keep in mind all those flights' that land each and every day. University of Greenwich Professor, Ed Galea, agreed that Ramesh's location in the emergency exit more than likely had something to do with his survival. 'He's got the seat as close as you could possibly be to an emergency exit. You can't be any closer,' Galea told The Telegraph. 'It's right on his side and he's actually in the A seat, which is the window seat. You could reach up and touch the door, you're that close to it.'
Another reason that could have factored into Ramesh's survival is the fact that his seat is located near the wing of the plane. The 'wing box' is the most fortified place on the aircraft. 'That's the strongest part of the aircraft because there's the most structure there,' Galea told the outlet. 'And I believe seat 11A is just at the front of that very strong part of the aircraft. That may have been a factor.' Also, sitting in the emergency exit rows carry the highest chance of survival during an life-threatening situation as passengers have the fastest exit. '[It] greatly increases the chance of survival when there is a fire,' University of York Professor John McDermid told The Telegraph. However, both professors also believe the main thing that saved Ramesh was simply luck. 'He also had a lot of good fortune,' Galea said. 'Because why did he survive and 11B sitting right next to him didn't, or 11C or 12A?'
Ironically, an American Airlines employee told The Sun in December that row 11 was the worst to sit in for impatient travelers. Specifically, seats 11A and 11F were cited as horrible seats as it can make exiting the plane slower. 'If you're looking for a quick exit, avoid row 11 at all costs,' the unidentified flight attendant told the outlet. 'Being in the middle row, especially in a window seat, which tends to be either A or F, almost guarantees you'll be one of the last off the plane.' The flight attendant did not specify which aircrafts this involved, as seating charts vary by design.
Another reason, seat 11A can be a bad spot to pick is do to some aircrafts, such as a Boeing 737 - which is not the same as the Air India flight - not having a window due to the air conditioning system being there, a Flight Radar expert told Unilad Tech . Ramesh is being treated at a hospital in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, where he told doctors that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two. Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who examined Ramesh, told the Associated Press that he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body' but that he 'seems to be out of danger.' Speaking to Indian broadcaster Doordarshan, Ramesh recounted his horrific ordeal, and spoke of how he witnessed two air hostesses die 'in front of my eyes.'
'For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. And I opened my seatbelt and got out of there,' he said. His seat was placed right next to the emergency door, which he says came off when the plane hit the ground. 'The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building,' Ramesh recounted. 'There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.' 'The door must've broken on impact,' he said. 'There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don't know how.' When the plane hit the ground yesterday, seat 11A, where Ramesh was sat, collapsed into the ground floor of the building, instead of the upper levels where the jet's main body was badly destroyed. Ramesh also described how just moments after take-off, it 'felt like the plane had got stuck.'
He recalled how the pilots tried to raise the jet, but it 'went full speed and crashed into the building'. Ramesh explained how the plane quickly caught fire following the crash, and said he burned his arm. Astonishing footage taken near the crash site yesterday showed Ramesh with visible injuries hobbling away from the jet before he was rushed to hospital for treatment. Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight and is presumed dead, described yesterday how he heard a 'a loud noise' before the plane crashed. '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.' The Indian government has launched an investigation into the fatal crash of the London-bound plane that came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad. Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.