British survivor in seat 11A has ‘no idea' how he escaped death

Times

20 hours ago

A British passenger who is the only survivor of the Air India crash said he had 'no idea' how he escaped the disaster.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, from Leicester, who is married with a child, was in seat 11A next to the emergency exit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. His brother Ajay, 30, who was sitting in the same row on the other side of the aircraft, is believed to be among the dead.
Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 people aboard flight AI171 had died, adding that it 'offers its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased'. It had earlier said that 53 of the passengers on the boarding list were British citizens while others lived in the UK.
Entire families were killed when the flight to Gatwick crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad Airport at 9.08am GMT on Thursday. Relatives have been told it could take days to formally identify the dead.
Ramesh, 40, a company director, said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.' He told a journalist from the Hindustan Times: 'I don't know how I survived.'
Another brother, Nayan, 27, said at the family home: 'When the crash happened my brother video called us and all he could say was 'I have no idea how I survived or exited the plane'.
'He kept saying, 'I can't see my brother or anybody else.' All he was worried about on the phone was telling us 'find Ajay, you must find Ajay'.'
Nayan, the youngest of four siblings, said their father had called his brother minutes before the flight took off. 'At 9am, my dad called Vishwash. He was sat on the runway. He told us his flight was delayed. Five minutes later he video-calls Dad. The family is devastated, shattered, heartbroken.'
Before the announcement that only one passenger had survived, relatives of a London family on board the flight had been clinging to the hope that their loved ones had also survived.
Girish Lalgi and Hemaxi Shantilal, 27, and their sons Aadiv and Takshvi were travelling back to their home in Wembley, northwest London. A family spokesman said they had been told that 'they're alive at this point'. The family were visiting Shantilal's India-based relatives.
Gujarat's former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, was also among those killed, the authorities said. CR Paatil, president of the Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, told reporters: 'Our leader Vijay Rupani, was going [to London] to meet his family. He is also a victim in this incident. May his soul rest in peace.'
A British couple recorded a video from Ahmedabad airport as they prepared to board the flight. Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39 and his husband Jamie Meek, 45, from Ramsgate, Kent, posted the video on Instagram.
Greenlaw-Meek said in the clip: 'We are at the airport just boarding. Goodbye India.' Meek interrupted: 'On a ten-hour flight back to England.' Greenlaw-Meek continued: 'My biggest takeaway is to not lose your patience with your partner. Going back happily, happily, happily calm.'
The couple ran the Wellness Foundry which provides spiritual wellness from bases in London and Ramsgate.
On Wednesday they posted a video from their hotel in which Greenlaw-Meek, a former fashion designer, said: 'It is our last night in India and we have had a magical experience. There have been quite a few mind-blowing things that have happened … We are going to make a blog about the whole trip.'
Meek added: 'It would just be so nice to remember this and to share it with everybody because we really have been on quite a journey. And then just spending the last night here in this amazing hotel.'
Meek's brother Nick, a caretaker in Birmingham, said: 'We were expecting him home on [Thursday night]. He should have landed at 6.30pm and then driven up for about 11 to get his dog who is staying with our mum. She is not in a good way. It is all very raw for her at the moment. It's a lot to take in and we only heard this news a couple of hours ago. Jamie and his husband Fin had been out there for ten days as a couple to do a wellness retreat.'
A married couple and their three children who were on their way to the UK to start a new life and who took a selfie on board were also among those killed. Komi Vyas, a medical doctor, had quit her job at the Pacific Hospital in Udaipur, Rajasthan to join her radiologist husband Prateek Joshi in Britain.
Joshi had moved to the UK several years ago after meeting Vyas at the Pacific Hospital. The Indian broadcaster NDTV reported that Joshi had flown back to India to pick up Vyas, the couple's five-year-old twin sons Nakul and Pradyut, and their daughter Miraya, eight. Both Joshi and Vyas's relatives went to Ahmedabad airport to see them off. The last photograph the family took together was a selfie on board the plane shortly before it crashed.
Joshi's cousin, Nayan, told NDTV: 'They left for Ahmedabad yesterday to take the flight to London. Prateek had come here just two days ago to take his wife and children with him. Several other members of both families went to see them off.'
Monde Milupi Ngulube, a radiographer who worked with Joshi at the Royal Derby Hospital, posted a message on Facebook. She said: 'It's sad Dr Joshi. I'm a Zambian Radiographer and work with Dr Joshi. He was a consultant radiologist at University of Derby and Burton NHS trust. Please don't create stories you know nothing about. He lived in Derby by the way, not London!'
Raxa Modha, 55, her daughter-in-law, Yasha Kamdar, and her three-year-old grandson Rudra from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, were also among those killed.
Modha visited India to fulfill the dying wish of her late husband Kishor, who had wanted to spend his last days in their homeland. Her son, Kishan Modha, 31, was not on board as he was due to catch a flight on Friday.
Sejal Darji, who works for the family's catering company, said: 'Raxa called a couple of days ago to say she was catching the Air India flight today. We were expecting her home this evening. We have not heard anything.'
Akeel Nanabawa, 35, his wife Hannaa Vorajee, 31 and their daughter Sara, four, travelled from their home in Gloucester to Gujarat to visit his father for the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Adha.
Nanabawa's business partner, Shoyeb Khan Nagori, 35, who runs the Indian side of their recruitment business, visited Ahmedabad hospital where the casualties have been taken. He said many of the bodies were so badly burnt that identification is expected to take up to three days. 'It's horrendous here,' Nagori said. 'There are so many bodies in body bags coming in from the ambulances.'
The Gloucester Muslim community said in a statement: 'No words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss, but we pray that the family may find solace in the tremendous outpouring of compassion and solidarity from communities across the world.'
Inayatali Saiyedmiya Saiyed, 48, and his family travelled from Wembley, northwest London, to Ahmedabad to celebrate Eid.
The engineer was on board the flight with his wife Nafisa, 46, daughter Taskin, 25, a doctor, and son Waquee Ali, 22, who was in his final year of studying computer science at City University in London.
Muzaffar Saiyed, 44, Nafisa's brother, said family members have been asked to provide blood samples as part of the identification process, which they have been told will take three days.
Javed Ali Syed, his wife Mariam, son Zayn and daughter Amani, four, were also on board. Syed was the general manager of the Best Western Hotel in Olympia, west London. His wife Mariam worked for Burberry at Harrods.
An employee at Best Western Olympia said staff were told the family had died in the crash.
Syed studied at both the University of Mumbai and Anglia Ruskin University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business and hospitality management. His wife worked as a brand ambassador at Harrods for almost ten years.
Dhir Baxi and her sister Heer, both from London, were visiting their grandmother to celebrate her birthday. A relative wrote in a social media post: 'We all pray to give peace to his soul and strength to the family to bear this shock.'
Atlaf Patel, 50, a property manager at Redcastle Lettings in Ilford, east London, was also on the flight after visiting India for Eid celebrations with his family, according to a friend. 'He texted saying he was boarding the flight but we didn't hear anything back,' the friend, who declined to be named. 'We are really worried. We are praying for him and we are still waiting for him to come back'.
Adnan Master, 30 from Forest Hill, east London, was visiting relatives in India with his wife and child. It is understood that he was travelling back to London alone.
One friend, who declined to be named, said Master was 'probably one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet' and worked two jobs – one at a DIY store in east London and another as a delivery driver'.
The friend added: 'He was just one of the hardest-working people you'd ever meet. He just didn't stop, and everything he did was for his family. Everything he spoke about was for his family, 'I want to make my child have a good life'.'
The family of Rajnikan Mervana, 63, said last night that they are still awaiting news about his condition. Mervana, a catering and event company boss, lives in Wembley, north London.
Vijay Rupani, 68, a former chief minister of Gujarat who led the state from 2016 to 2021, was travelling to London to meet members of his family.
Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a dentist based in Mississauga, Ontario, was named by her family as the sole Canadian to have died in the crash. Her dental clinic confirmed her identity and referred inquiries to her husband, who said that he was preparing to travel to India with their one-year-old child. 'That was my wife,' he told Canadian Press. 'I am not in a state to speak right now.' He declined to provide his full name.
Tata Sons, which owns Air India, will pay about £86,000 — or ten million rupees — to the families of those who were killed.