Air India survivor Vishwaskumar Ramesh recalls harrowing moment plane went down
As Air India Flight AI171 fell from the sky early Thursday, Vishwaskumar Ramesh, a passenger tucked in the first row of economy class, was preparing to meet his maker.
'Everything happened in front of my eyes,' he told NDTV Friday. 'I thought I would die.'
But Ramesh did not die — he was the only person to survive the brutal plane crash on Thursday in the Meghaninagar area in India's Gujarat state.
The airliner, a 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members to the United Kingdom went it descended to its doom and slammed into a medical college building, just seconds after departing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
Ramesh, who was seated in exit row seat 11A, was the lone survivor of the crash, which also killed five medical students on the ground in addition to the other 242 people on the ill-fated Air India flight.
'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,' Ramesh told local reporters from his hospital bed. 'It all happened so quickly … 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.'
He added: 'The airhostess … died before my eyes.'
The BBC said 169 Indian nationals, 53 U.K citizens, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian were on board the airliner when it went down. Many others inside the medical college at the time were also injured — some seriously — in the crash, hospital officials said.
Ramesh, a British-Indian citizen who is married and has a child, was spotted in the immediate aftermath of the crash, covered in ash and limping in the street, and then rushed to a hospital for treatment.
'I have no idea how I'm alive,' he added.
How Ramesh survived the descent is still a miraculous mystery.
Investigators are also still working to understand what caused the plane to crash.
'Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,' Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement. 'I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.'
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