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First Post
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- First Post
Miracles in seat 11A: The tale of 2 air crashes and 2 survivors
Thai singer Ruangsak James Loychusak, a survivor of the 1998 Thai Airways crash, said he got 'goosebumps' when he found out an eerie coincidence with the recent Air India crash survivor, Vishwas Kumar Ramesh. They both sat in the same seat, 11A. Loychusak was among the 45 people who survived the Thai Airways crash that killed 146 people three decades ago read more In December 1998, Thai singer Ruangsak Loychusak was aboard Thai Airways Flight TG261 to Surat Thani when it stalled and crashed into a swamp, killing 146. Among 45 survivors was Loychusak, seated in 11A, same as Ahmedabad Air India passenger, Vishwas Ramesh. Image courtesy: Instagram, Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives Calling Seat 11A a 'miracle seat' would not be an exaggeration. Back in 1998, Thai singer Ruangsak James Loychusak survived a devastating plane crash, an experience that stayed with him forever. But he never thought the seat he was in that day, 11A, would come back into conversation decades later. Nearly 27 years on, when he saw reports that the only survivor of a recent Air India crash in Ahmedabad was also seated in 11A, he was taken aback. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The lone survivor of the plane crash in India was sitting in the same seat number as me, 11A. Goosebumps', Loychusak, now 47, wrote on Facebook. Earlier this week, India witnessed one of its most tragic aviation accidents in recent history. An Air India flight bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 241 people on board. The only person who made it out alive was Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, an Indian-origin British national. And now, Loychusak's survival story from 1998 is back in the spotlight, with an uncanny connection to the same seat number, 11A. Here's what we know How seat 11A gave Loychusak a 'second life' In December 1998, 20-year-old Thai singer Ruangsak Loychusak was aboard Thai Airways Flight TG261 from Bangkok to Surat Thani when the Airbus A310 stalled and crashed into a swamp. Of 146 people on board, only 45 survived. Among them was Loychusak, seated in 11A. He somehow managed to crawl out of the wreckage and was rushed to the hospital with injuries. He no longer has his boarding pass from that day, but he says newspaper reports from the time had documented his seat number: 11A. The crash left deep emotional scars. Loychusak has often described the years since as his 'second life'. Of 146 people on board, only 45 survived. Among them was Loychusak, seated in 11A. Loychusak has often described the years since as his 'second life'. Image courtesy: X 'I had difficulty flying for 10 years after the crash. I would struggle breathing, even though the air circulation was normal,' he told The Daily Mail. 'I avoided speaking to anyone and always stared outside the window, blocking anyone from closing it to maintain my sense of safety. If I saw dark clouds or a rainstorm outside, I would feel terrible, like I was in hell.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The memories of that day never left him. 'I can still remember the sounds, smells, and even the taste of the water in the swamp the plane crashed into. For a long time, I would keep the feelings to myself,' he said. In December 1998, 20-year-old Thai singer Ruangsak Loychusak was aboard Thai Airways Flight TG261 from Bangkok to Surat Thani when the Airbus A310 stalled and crashed into a swamp. Image courtesy: Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives So when he came across reports that the lone survivor of the Air India crash in June 2025 had also been seated in 11A, he felt a chill. He then offered condolences to those who lost their lives in the tragic incident. How 11A became a 'miracle seat' for Vishwas Just days ago, 40-year-old Vishwas Ramesh became the only person to survive the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. He, too, had been sitting in 11A. Speaking from his hospital bed, Ramesh shared the moment he realised he had somehow survived. 'I've no idea how I survived. For a while, I thought I was dying too. But when I opened my eyes, I tried to get out. I saw the gate was broken and there was a small gap — I jumped through it,' he told DD News. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British citizen, was the only person to survive the crash. PTI/Reuters According to NDTV, which analysed the seating layout of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, Ramesh's seat 11A was located at the front of the economy section, just behind business class, and close to the left-side emergency exits. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD That location may have made all the difference. Ramesh's seat 11A was located in the first row of the economy section, just behind business class and close to the left-side emergency exits. That positioning may have made all the difference. Image courtesy: SeatGuru The section of the plane where Ramesh was seated crashed into the lower floor of a building. While upper levels of the aircraft were engulfed in fire, his part of the fuselage stayed relatively intact. That narrow stroke of luck may have given him the chance to escape. Footage taken near the crash site shows Ramesh, injured and limping, making his way away from the burning jet before emergency responders reached him. Ramesh, who grew up in India and later moved to the UK, had been travelling with his brother Ajay, who tragically did not survive the crash. Seat 11A: From the 'worst seat' to a lucky charm Among frequent flyers, seat 11A hasn't exactly been a popular choice. Flight attendants from American Airlines once told The Sun that 11A and 11F are among the most complained-about seats. They're located mid-cabin, meaning passengers often have to wait longer to deboard. But perhaps the biggest disappointment? On many aircraft, including certain Boeing 737s, 11A is a window seat…without an actual window. Thanks to internal wiring, air ducts, or aircraft design quirks, seats like 9A to 12A sometimes sit beside a blank wall. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Yet in the wake of these two unbelievable survival stories, the perception of 11A is starting to shift. Online, people are now referring to it as 'the miracle seat.' Some are even asking airlines if they can reserve it, not for the view, but for the luck. With input from agencies
NDTV
6 hours ago
- General
- NDTV
Seat 11A: 2 Plane Crashes, 2 Survivors, 27 Years Apart
New Delhi: Two plane crash survivors, nearly three decades apart, shared the same seat: 11A. The first crash happened in Thailand in 1998, the other in India in 2025, and both survivors walked away from near-certain death. James Ruangsak Loychusak, an actor and singer from Thailand, was shocked to discover that the only person who survived the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad was also sitting in seat 11A, the same seat he sat in when he defied death 27 years ago. Mr Loychusak, 47, was on Thai Airways flight TG261 in 1998 when it crashed while attempting a landing in Surat Thani, a city in southern Thailand. The flight took off from Bangkok, but during landing, it stalled mid-air and crashed, killing 101 of the 146 people on board. He was one of the survivors and was seated in 11A, reported The Telegraph. When the actor heard about the sole Air India flight AI-171 crash survivor - a 40-year-old British Indian man, Viswash Kumar Ramesh, who also happened to be seated in 11A, he noticed the strange coincidence. "Survivor of a plane crash in India. He sat in the same seat as me. 11A," he wrote on Facebook. But this was just a coincidence, for there were multiple survivors in the Thai Airways crash. In contrast, the Air India crash had only one survivor. Additionally, the two aircraft were different. Thai Airways Flight was an Airbus A310, while Air India Flight AI-171 used a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The design, layout, and seat positioning of 11A are different on the two aircraft. The London-bound Air India flight took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on June 12 and crashed 30 seconds later on the hostel building of a nearby medical college. Of the 242 people on board, Viswash was the only survivor.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
What survivors of commercial plane crashes have in common – and only some of it is luck
'Miracle girl' Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of doomed Yemenia Flight 626, notably survived its 2009 crash into the Indian Ocean by clinging to a piece of aircraft wreckage, something she was able to do because she happened to have been ejected from the Airbus A310 as it crashed. The four survivors of Japan Airlines Flight 123, which killed 520 people after crashing into Mount Osutaka in August 1985, were all seated in the last seven rows of the aircraft. That happened to be the only part that remained intact after impact. Which part of the plane that remains intact in the event of a crash – and if you're in it – may be luck of the draw, but in the case of Japan Airlines Flight 516, a major factor in the survival of all 379 occupants after it collided with a Coast Guard plane at Haneda Airport was its efficient evacuation process. American journalist Amanda Ripley's extensive disaster reporting helped Time win more than one award – and it also formed a strong basis for her book The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes – and why. What Ripley had discovered over the years was how much understanding behavioural psychology was crucial to the survival of humans when disaster strikes, and how much it's been overlooked. Fight, flight, freeze or fawn – if your body knows instinctively what to do, Ripley argues, then it may be able to cut through in times of extreme distress. 'The brain loves body memory,' writes Ripley, who highlights the efficacy of 'dress rehearsals' of fires in house and workplace survival rates. 'It is much better to stop, drop, and roll than to talk about stopping, dropping, and rolling.' Loading In an unfamiliar and somewhat temporary environment like a commercial plane, conducting a disaster drill as a passenger is easier said than done. But Ripley highlights how making a habit of counting the rows between your seat and the nearest emergency exit on every plane you board – should you need to rely on senses other than sight – is essential. Crew, after all, are given a 90-second time limit to evacuate all passengers before flames, and smoke, become fatal for those inside the plane, some of whom may be trapped by their own paralysing fear, or others who are clogging the aisle trying to retrieve their belongings in shock. Not one of Japan Airlines Flight 516's occupants exited with hand luggage. Which is the safest seat on a commercial flight? There is no magic seat that protects individual passengers; however, there is some data to show that there are safer and less safe seats in the event of a crash. Incomplete data from the American Federal Aviation Administration between 1985 and 2000 was analysed by Time, which found that sitting in the back of a plane was generally safer, fulfilling the urban myth that first-class passengers face the brunt of a crash's impact. Middle seats have also been found to have the lowest fatality rate, though there are questions of situational advantage, as in some crashes having an aisle seat can mean a quicker evacuation. It should be noted, however, that not all crash data reports seat numbers against passenger fatalities, so a complete analysis is difficult to perform. Is there a way to tell if an airline is at higher risk of a crash? Despite 2025 being one of the deadliest years on record for civil aviation, commercial aircraft accidents are still considered extremely rare today. Of course, some airlines and countries have a worse record than others, and there are several resources flyers can use. Qantas, recently voted the world's second-safest airline for 2025 on behind Air New Zealand, has never had a fatal jet airline accident. Air India didn't make top 25 list when it was released earlier this year, and currently has an air safety star rating of just four stars out of seven, factoring Friday's mass fatalities. Loading At the time of writing, Air India also does not feature among the banned carriers on the European Union Air Safety List (ASL) – an internationally recognised and frequently updated list of air carriers from non-EU nations banned from operating to, in and from the EU due to not meeting necessary international safety standards. The list was last updated on June 3, before the crash took place. Both the reviews and the ASL can be used as reference guides for flyers. The ASL is a particularly good resource for anyone considering using a foreign carrier for the first time, according to RMIT University aerospace engineering and aviation expert Chrystal Zhang. 'It's definitely one of the very reliable resources for anyone who wants to check the [carrier's] safety performance and capability of the government [to manage] safety performance,' said Zhang. 'It is one of the purposes they developed that list.' The banned or partially banned airlines are determined based on information gathered by aviation safety experts from all the EU member states and the European Commission, including assessment of both the individual airline and its associated governing authorities. 'They would determine whether the carriers have valid, appropriate safety management systems in place to satisfy the EU's requirements … then they would check the capability of the government agency – in [the Yeti Airlines] case the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal – to establish to what extent they're capable of overseeing the overall management system of their aviation sector,' said Zhang. While Australia doesn't have an equivalent ban list in place, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulates who gets an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) to operate safely in Australia. 'This means any Australian airline will be safe,' said University of Sydney aviation expert Professor Rico Merkert. 'Foreign carriers are not permitted to fly into Australian airspace until they receive a Foreign Aircraft Air Operator's Certificate (CASA). As such, I feel in safe hands.' Which airlines are the safest? Air New Zealand is ranked the safest on with Qantas following in an 'extremely close' second place. According to the group, rankings are based on a number of categories, including the number of serious incidents in the last two years, fleet size and age, fatalities, and pilot skills and training. Loading Airlines are balanced in their ranking to ensure that proportionality is considered. 'An airline operating only 100 aircraft experiencing three incidents raises greater concern than an airline with 800 aircraft experiencing six incidents,' said the group. 'Another critical factor is how incidents are managed. While incidents occur daily across the aviation industry, the expertise of pilots and crew often determines whether an event remains an incident or escalates into a tragedy.' The group also said that incidents are sometimes the fault of the plane manufacturer, rather than the airline, and that is taken into consideration. Air India Flight 171 marks the first hull loss for a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner since the type of aircraft began operating in 2011.
The Age
a day ago
- General
- The Age
What survivors of commercial plane crashes have in common – and only some of it is luck
'Miracle girl' Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of doomed Yemenia Flight 626, notably survived its 2009 crash into the Indian Ocean by clinging to a piece of aircraft wreckage, something she was able to do because she happened to have been ejected from the Airbus A310 as it crashed. The four survivors of Japan Airlines Flight 123, which killed 520 people after crashing into Mount Osutaka in August 1985, were all seated in the last seven rows of the aircraft. That happened to be the only part that remained intact after impact. Which part of the plane that remains intact in the event of a crash – and if you're in it – may be luck of the draw, but in the case of Japan Airlines Flight 516, a major factor in the survival of all 379 occupants after it collided with a Coast Guard plane at Haneda Airport was its efficient evacuation process. American journalist Amanda Ripley's extensive disaster reporting helped Time win more than one award – and it also formed a strong basis for her book The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes – and why. What Ripley had discovered over the years was how much understanding behavioural psychology was crucial to the survival of humans when disaster strikes, and how much it's been overlooked. Fight, flight, freeze or fawn – if your body knows instinctively what to do, Ripley argues, then it may be able to cut through in times of extreme distress. 'The brain loves body memory,' writes Ripley, who highlights the efficacy of 'dress rehearsals' of fires in house and workplace survival rates. 'It is much better to stop, drop, and roll than to talk about stopping, dropping, and rolling.' Loading In an unfamiliar and somewhat temporary environment like a commercial plane, conducting a disaster drill as a passenger is easier said than done. But Ripley highlights how making a habit of counting the rows between your seat and the nearest emergency exit on every plane you board – should you need to rely on senses other than sight – is essential. Crew, after all, are given a 90-second time limit to evacuate all passengers before flames, and smoke, become fatal for those inside the plane, some of whom may be trapped by their own paralysing fear, or others who are clogging the aisle trying to retrieve their belongings in shock. Not one of Japan Airlines Flight 516's occupants exited with hand luggage. Which is the safest seat on a commercial flight? There is no magic seat that protects individual passengers; however, there is some data to show that there are safer and less safe seats in the event of a crash. Incomplete data from the American Federal Aviation Administration between 1985 and 2000 was analysed by Time, which found that sitting in the back of a plane was generally safer, fulfilling the urban myth that first-class passengers face the brunt of a crash's impact. Middle seats have also been found to have the lowest fatality rate, though there are questions of situational advantage, as in some crashes having an aisle seat can mean a quicker evacuation. It should be noted, however, that not all crash data reports seat numbers against passenger fatalities, so a complete analysis is difficult to perform. Is there a way to tell if an airline is at higher risk of a crash? Despite 2025 being one of the deadliest years on record for civil aviation, commercial aircraft accidents are still considered extremely rare today. Of course, some airlines and countries have a worse record than others, and there are several resources flyers can use. Qantas, recently voted the world's second-safest airline for 2025 on behind Air New Zealand, has never had a fatal jet airline accident. Air India didn't make top 25 list when it was released earlier this year, and currently has an air safety star rating of just four stars out of seven, factoring Friday's mass fatalities. Loading At the time of writing, Air India also does not feature among the banned carriers on the European Union Air Safety List (ASL) – an internationally recognised and frequently updated list of air carriers from non-EU nations banned from operating to, in and from the EU due to not meeting necessary international safety standards. The list was last updated on June 3, before the crash took place. Both the reviews and the ASL can be used as reference guides for flyers. The ASL is a particularly good resource for anyone considering using a foreign carrier for the first time, according to RMIT University aerospace engineering and aviation expert Chrystal Zhang. 'It's definitely one of the very reliable resources for anyone who wants to check the [carrier's] safety performance and capability of the government [to manage] safety performance,' said Zhang. 'It is one of the purposes they developed that list.' The banned or partially banned airlines are determined based on information gathered by aviation safety experts from all the EU member states and the European Commission, including assessment of both the individual airline and its associated governing authorities. 'They would determine whether the carriers have valid, appropriate safety management systems in place to satisfy the EU's requirements … then they would check the capability of the government agency – in [the Yeti Airlines] case the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal – to establish to what extent they're capable of overseeing the overall management system of their aviation sector,' said Zhang. While Australia doesn't have an equivalent ban list in place, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulates who gets an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) to operate safely in Australia. 'This means any Australian airline will be safe,' said University of Sydney aviation expert Professor Rico Merkert. 'Foreign carriers are not permitted to fly into Australian airspace until they receive a Foreign Aircraft Air Operator's Certificate (CASA). As such, I feel in safe hands.' Which airlines are the safest? Air New Zealand is ranked the safest on with Qantas following in an 'extremely close' second place. According to the group, rankings are based on a number of categories, including the number of serious incidents in the last two years, fleet size and age, fatalities, and pilot skills and training. Loading Airlines are balanced in their ranking to ensure that proportionality is considered. 'An airline operating only 100 aircraft experiencing three incidents raises greater concern than an airline with 800 aircraft experiencing six incidents,' said the group. 'Another critical factor is how incidents are managed. While incidents occur daily across the aviation industry, the expertise of pilots and crew often determines whether an event remains an incident or escalates into a tragedy.' The group also said that incidents are sometimes the fault of the plane manufacturer, rather than the airline, and that is taken into consideration. Air India Flight 171 marks the first hull loss for a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner since the type of aircraft began operating in 2011.
Time of India
2 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Gujarat plane crash: 9,300 hours of flying experience between captain manning flight & his co-pilot
Sabharwal & Kunder An hour before takeoff from Ahmedabad on Thursday, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal had called home and told his family he would ring again once he reached London. That was not to be. His last call was to air traffic control before AI171 crashed and burned. Sabharwal, a senior pilot, had 8,200 flying hours, aviation regulator DGCA said. A senior colleague, however, said his flying experience would be much more. "The regulator's eGCA platform is fairly new and may not have his entire record," the colleague said. "He was a very good, quiet person who flew the Airbus A310, Boeing 777 and B787. He kept his head down and was a diligent worker." Co-pilot Clive Kunder had 1,100 hours flying experience. Commanding a commercial aircraft requires at least 1,500 hours; Kunder was first flying officer on the nearly 10 hour flight, assisting Sabharwal. Expressing grief over the tragedy, actor Vikrant Massey wrote on Instagram, "It pains even more to know that my uncle, Clifford Kunder, lost his son..." Several posts on social media mourned Kunder's death and highlighted his roots in Mangaluru.
