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CNN
a day ago
- General
- CNN
A miracle in seat 11A: What we know about the sole survivor of Air India crash Vishwash Kumar Ramesh
CNN — It seemed impossible, but shortly after news broke that an Air India flight had crashed in the city of Ahmedabad, video started circulating on social media showing a man walking from the scene in a bloodstained shirt. Then, it emerged there was one survivor: a British national of Indian origin, identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh by the Hindustan Times. 'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' it quoted him as saying in an interview at the hospital where he was being treated. He said he had been visiting family and was returning to the UK with his brother, who had been sitting in a different row. He didn't know if his brother had survived, he said. Air India later confirmed that of the 242 people on board the flight, 241 had died, making Ramesh the sole survivor. His cousin Ajay Valgi told reporters in Leicester, England, that Ramesh had called his family to tell them he's 'fine,' adding that they were upset about his brother and all of the others who died. A doctor told CNN that Ramesh's condition was 'not very critical' and that he could be released in the next couple of days. 'He has some blood in the images, but he's not very badly injured. He is very comfortable and under strict observation, no issues,' said Dr. Rajnish Patel, professor and head of surgery at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Indian news outlets have shared a photo of Ramesh's boarding pass, which indicates that he was in seat 11A of the flight, in the emergency exit row, just in front of the plane's left wing. CNN hasn't independently confirmed the veracity of the photo. CNN safety analyst and former US Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector David Soucie expressed surprise that someone seated at that part of the plane would survive such a crash. That seat is 'right where the spar of the wing would go under and it would be a solid place for the aircraft to hit the ground, but as far as survivability above it, that is incredibly surprising,' he told CNN. Ramesh told Indian broadcaster Doordarshan that he escaped through a small space near the door by his seat. He said his hand was burned by the flames as he fled from the aircraft. 'I don't know how I managed to escape,' Ramesh said, adding that he saw other passengers die in front of him. 'For some time, I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could,' he said. Ramesh's survival was described as miraculous by a British member of parliament. 'It's nothing short of a miracle. I have reached out to the family and I'm choosing to respect their privacy at this trying time. But as you may have picked up … one of his brothers was also on that flight who sadly didn't survive,' Shivani Raja, member of parliament for Leicester East, told CNN's Max Foster on Thursday. People inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel were also killed when the plane crashed into it, a senior doctor at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where a majority of the dead and injured people were taken, told CNN. The doctor added that the death toll is likely to rise. Earlier Thursday, Swapnil Bhalodia of the Indian Medical Association Medical Students Network said at least three medical students had died in the crash and another 30 were injured. The plane was headed for London's Gatwick airport and was carrying Indian, British, Canadian and Portuguese nationals.
CBS News
a day ago
- General
- CBS News
Air India plane crash survivor describes his extraordinary escape: "Everything happened in front of my eyes"
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."
CNN
2 days ago
- General
- CNN
A miracle in seat 11A: What we know about Air India crash survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh
It seemed impossible, but shortly after news broke that an Air India flight had crashed in the city of Ahmedabad, video started circulating on social media showing a man walking from the scene in a bloodstained shirt. Then, it emerged there was one survivor: a British national of Indian origin, identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh by the Hindustan Times. 'Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' it quoted him as saying in an interview at the hospital where he was being treated. He said he had been visiting family and was returning to the UK with his brother, who had been sitting in a different row. He didn't know if his brother had survived, he said. Air India later confirmed that of the 242 people on board the flight, 241 had died, making Ramesh the sole survivor. His cousin Ajay Valgi told reporters in Leicester, England, that Ramesh had called his family to tell them he's 'fine,' adding that they were upset about his brother and all of the others who died. A doctor told CNN that Ramesh's condition was 'not very critical' and that he could be released in the next couple of days. 'He has some blood in the images, but he's not very badly injured. He is very comfortable and under strict observation, no issues,' said Dr. Rajnish Patel, professor and head of surgery at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Indian news outlets have shared a photo of Ramesh's boarding pass, which indicates that he was in seat 11A of the flight, in the emergency exit row, just in front of the plane's left wing. CNN hasn't independently confirmed the veracity of the photo. CNN safety analyst and former US Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector David Soucie expressed surprise that someone seated at that part of the plane would survive such a crash. That seat is 'right where the spar of the wing would go under and it would be a solid place for the aircraft to hit the ground, but as far as survivability above it, that is incredibly surprising,' he told CNN. Ramesh's survival was described as miraculous by a British member of parliament. 'It's nothing short of a miracle. I have reached out to the family and I'm choosing to respect their privacy at this trying time. But as you may have picked up … one of his brothers was also on that flight who sadly didn't survive,' Shivani Raja, member of parliament for Leicester East, told CNN's Max Foster on Thursday. People inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel were also killed when the plane crashed into it, a senior doctor at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where a majority of the dead and injured people were taken, told CNN. The doctor added that the death toll is likely to rise. Earlier Thursday, Swapnil Bhalodia of the Indian Medical Association Medical Students Network said at least three medical students had died in the crash and another 30 were injured. The plane was headed for London's Gatwick airport and was carrying Indian, British, Canadian and Portuguese nationals. CNN's Elise Hammond and Caitlin Danaher contributed to this post.
