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The Province
13 hours ago
- General
- The Province
Only this man walked away from fiery Air India plane crash: 'I have no idea how I exited the plane'
'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 said The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. Photo by SAM PANTHAKY / AFP via Getty Images Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British man, sat in Seat 11A in the first economy-class row behind business class, a window seat allowing a terrifying view as the plane he was on sank from the sky shortly after takeoff, crashing into a building and bursting into flames. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The crash apparently killed everyone else on board. Ramesh was returning to London from Ahmedabad in western India, Thursday, when the Air India Boeing 787-8 commercial passenger jet crashed. Authorities have recovered 265 bodies with more expected to be found. At first, officials declared there were no survivors, but local video showed an agitated man in a stained white T-shirt walking away from the crash with a slight limp, heading towards an ambulance while smoke billowed overhead. He was later identified as Ramesh, and a photograph of him in a hospital bed later in the day shows injuries and blood on the left side of his face — the side that faced the window. Authorities confirmed Ramesh was one of the passengers aboard Air India Flight 171. He showed local media his folded boarding pass which matched the passenger's name, flight, and seat assignment in the plane's manifest. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' Ramesh told the Hindustan Times from a hospital bed. '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,' he said. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Officials said he suffered 'impact injuries' to his chest, face and feet. He was in a general ward bed rather than a specialized trauma unit, suggesting his injuries were relatively minor. While the seemingly miraculous survival is a wonder, as well as one glimmer of good news amid an enormous tragedy, for Ramesh it remained a day of loss and pain. He had been returning to Britain from visiting family with his older brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh. His brother was sitting in a different row from him. Ajay Valgi, Ramesh's cousin in England, told the BBC that Ramesh phoned his family and told them he was 'fine' but that he didn't know where his brother was. Another brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, relayed a brief phone call with Ramesh: 'He said, 'I have no idea how I exited the plane.'' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. There were 169 Indian citizens, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese and one Canadian as passengers on the flight destined for London's Gatwick airport, Air India said. Eleven children were on board. The Canadian has been identified as Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a dentist from Mississauga, Ont. Officials said there were 12 crew members on board as well as the 230 passengers. Many others on the ground were killed and injured. Police said the jet smashed into a hostel that was used by local doctors. Ahmedabad's police commissioner, G.S. Malik, told ANI News: 'The police found one survivor in seat 11A. He has been in the hospital and is under treatment…. The death toll may increase as the flight crashed in a residential area.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Air India flight 171 survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. Photo by Instagram/rasgullareddy Ramesh was born in India but has lived in England for many years. He lives in Leicester, where he has a wife and child and an extended family, British media reported. How he alone survived is not known. Seat 11A is on the left side of the plane, beside an emergency exit and behind a kitchen galley that separates the business-class cabin from the cheaper seats further into the plane. It is not considered a particularly desirable seat. It is close to the kitchen, which can be noisy, and it has no floor space for bags during takeoff and landing, according to While there is more legroom because it is an exit row, that comes at a cost: the tray table is nested in the armrest, making the armrest immoveable and the seat narrower. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Ramesh's boarding pass says his flight was scheduled for departure at 1:10 p.m., on Thursday, an hour after his boarding call. It was 29 minutes late when it took off. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It was less than a minute after taking off that the air traffic controllers received a Mayday call from the plane, an international emergency distress signal, as it sank back to the ground, bursting into flames and sending up clouds of dark smoke that were clearly visible from the airport. The plane is seen in videos sinking through the air, looking more like a planned landing than an erratic crash, but rather than finding a runway, it smashed through a building on the outskirts of the airport. The front of the plane penetrated deep into the building, with only its tail sticking out. Ramesh's brother is still unaccounted for. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. While authorities want to know what caused the plane to descend, there will also be great interest in how one man managed to walk away from the carnage. • Email: ahumphreys@ | Twitter: AD_Humphreys Read More Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here. Vancouver Canucks Soccer Sports News Local News
New York Times
17 hours ago
- General
- New York Times
Is There a Safest Seat in a Plane Crash? We Asked Experts.
Suddenly, airline passengers around the world are wondering if there is something special about Seat 11A. That's where Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 38, the sole survivor of the Air India Boeing 787-8 that crashed after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday was sitting. Did the location of his seat help spare his life? Probably not, aviation experts said. There's nothing that makes that or any other seat safer than anywhere else on a plane, and they added, it's usually not worth trying to game out safety when selecting where to sit for a flight. 'If you're in a crash, all bets are off,' said Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board. 'So pick whatever seat you want to make you feel comfortable.' While conventional wisdom holds that the rear of an aircraft may be safer, that theory falsely assumes that the front of a plane will always make impact first in the event of a crash, Mr. Guzzetti said. 'You just can't predict crash dynamics.' Airlines use different configurations for different aircraft. On that Air India flight, Seat 11A was in an exit row on the left side, according to a seat map on SeatGuru. Sitting near an exit may allow passengers to escape more quickly in some circumstances, but Mr. Ramesh told India's state broadcaster that the right side of the aircraft was 'crushed against a wall,' preventing anyone else who may have survived the initial impact from escaping through the exit on that side. In an emergency like a fire, when 'you're still sitting on your landing gear and the airplane is pretty much upright and intact,' an exit row may offer the quickest path to safety, Mr. Guzzetti said. 'But with regard to the crash dynamics of an accident like Air India, I think it's just a matter of chance.' Shawn Pruchnicki, a former accident investigator at the Air Line Pilots Association and an assistant professor of aviation safety at Ohio State University, chalked up Mr. Ramesh's survival to 'purely luck.' 'In these types of accidents people just don't survive this close to the front, this close to fuel,' Dr. Pruchnicki said, referring to the fact that the fuel tanks on a Boeing 787 are mainly on the wings and in the fuselage between them. The crash on Thursday was the latest in a string of recent aviation disasters around the globe, including a midair collision in Washington in January, and crashes in South Korea and Kazakhstan in December, that have raised fears among some travelers about the safety of flying. Aviation experts say flying remains safe and that crashes, though high-profile, remain very rare. Christine Chung contributed reporting. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
Time of India
21 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
Brothers seated across the aisle — only one walks out alive from Air India 171 crash
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Seat 11A became a lifeline for Viswashkumar Ramesh . Just across the aisle in 11J sat his brother, Ajaykumar Ramesh. Within 30 seconds of takeoff, fate tore the two apart, reported Thursday afternoon, AI Flight 171 — bound for London — crashed moments after departing Ahmedabad. Viswashkumar, a British citizen, stumbled out of the burning wreckage. He is the only confirmed survivor. He now lies in bed 11 of ward B7 at Ahmedabad civil hospital . His brother Ajaykumar is feared to be among the 265 who lost their lives.'There was a loud noise,' Viswashkumar told his cousin Dhirendra Somabhai from his hospital bed. 'The plane hung mid-air. Then came the pilot's voice: 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!''Dhirendra told TOI Viswashkumar remembers only jumping through a door. 'Nothing more.'Video footage shows him staggering through debris, bloodied and in shock, crying out: 'Plane fatyo che! Plane fatyo che!' (The plane exploded). Locals and rescue workers rushed to pull him into an ambulance. At the hospital, he wept and kept repeating: 'Where is my brother? Leave me alone. I don't want to talk. Can anyone tell me where he is?'Officials sealed off his ward around 2:30 pm after confirming his identity. Gujarat ATS and Ahmedabad crime branch officers have since restricted brothers had lived in London for 15 years, jointly running a garment business in the UK and a fishing venture in Diu . They were among 15 residents from Diu's Bucharwada and Vanakbara villages on the friend Ayub Mansuri, who dropped them at the airport Thursday morning, said Viswashkumar's father in London was the first to call him with the news. 'I managed to speak to Viswash three times after the crash, but then his phone died,' he told the news outlet. 'I hired an auto and made my way past roadblocks to reach the hospital. He had head injuries and bruises.'Dhirendra recalled a brief conversation the night before. 'We were all in Patelwadi. Viswash looked at me and said, 'I don't know when we'll meet next.''Diu additional district magistrate Vivek Kumar confirmed that all 15 passengers from the region have been identified. 'Only one survived. A team from the Diu administration has left for Ahmedabad,' he told TOI.
NDTV
a day ago
- General
- NDTV
How 11A, Europe's Most-Hated Seat On A Boeing 737, Became Air India Crash's Luckiest
On the afternoon of June 12, 2025, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route to London Gatwick, crashed just moments after taking off from Ahmedabad. Of the 242 people on board, only one survived. The sole survivor was a British-Indian man, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, who miraculously walked away from the wreckage that claimed 241 lives. His extraordinary survival has since captured the attention of not only India but also the world. Seated in 11A, Ramesh's escape was quickly labelled a miracle. Social media erupted with references to "God's grace", "sheer luck", and even to the seat itself, with terms like 'Miracle Seat' 11A going viral. How Did Ramesh Save Himself? In a recent interview from his hospital bed with DD News, Ramesh recounted the moment he realised he was still alive. "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 said. You see, according to the Boeing 787's seating configuration used by Air India, Seat 11A is a Standard Economy Exit Row seat-positioned right next to an exit. Though such seats are often avoided by passengers due to reduced recline and proximity to the door, it was this very closeness that perhaps saved Ramesh's life. Ironically, the seat that became a life-saving miracle on the Boeing 787 is widely considered one of the worst seats on another aircraft model: the Boeing 737. 'The Window Seat 11A' On the Boeing 737-900 and 900ER, Seat 11A is infamously known as a window seat without a window. Thanks to the placement of internal components like air conditioning ducts or structural reinforcements, certain seats-especially those forward of the wing, such as 9A, 10A, 11A and 12A-lack windows altogether. This quirk is common across the Boeing 737 family. Seat 11A has even earned itself the nickname "the windowless window seat", becoming a running joke and meme on travel forums and social media. Many passengers have complained about this particular seat, especially those who booked it expecting a view. One of the most infamous examples comes from Ryanair, a low-cost Irish airline primarily serving destinations in Europe and Morocco. Ryanair's version of Seat 11A also lacks a window-something the airline has been criticised for, with frustrated passengers venting about the disappointment of getting a 'window seat' without the actual window. Have a look at some of these reactions: From 'Worst Seat' To A Lucky Charm? Now, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is buzzing with a new question: has Seat 11A just gone from the most hated to the most coveted? With Ramesh's miraculous survival tied to this seat, people are asking whether airlines like Ryanair or those operating Boeing 737s will start charging extra for it. Have a look at some: What was once a point of ridicule has now become a symbol of unbelievable luck. Whether airlines choose to monetise the myth of Seat 11A remains to be seen - but for Vishwashkumar Ramesh and his family, it will forever be the seat that gave him a second life.
Hype Malaysia
a day ago
- General
- Hype Malaysia
Air India Boeing Crash Claims Multiple Lives; One British Passenger Survives
Tragedy struck India when an Air India flight, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Chennai International Airport. Minutes into its journey to Gatwick Airport in England, the flight lost altitude and slammed into a nearby medical hostel, catching both passengers and residents off guard. The crash caused widespread devastation, scattering parts of the aircraft across the hostel grounds. Emergency services rushed to the scene amid thick smoke and debris, confronting a grim aftermath marked by injuries, fatalities, and many unanswered questions. The flight carried 242 people, with only one survivor, a British national. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh boarded the flight back to the UK with his older brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh, after visiting family. He took Seat 11A, next to the emergency exit—a spot many passengers consider the worst on the airline. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, Vishwash said he heard a loud noise shortly after takeoff, just before the crash. '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 recalled. Vishwash sat in a different row, away from Ajay. As paramedics rushed Ramesh into an ambulance, he pleaded with them to search for his brother, hoping Ajay had survived. Doctors later confirmed that Vishwash had escaped with only minor injuries and would return home within a few days. But relief gave way to grief when he learned Ajay hadn't survived. The loss shattered Vishwash and left his family in mourning. At least eight people from the medical hostel, believed to be students or relatives of the residents, remain missing, while authorities have confirmed one death. Rescue crews continue working through the debris, as families anxiously await news, holding on to hope despite the mounting fear. A senior doctor at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital expressed grave concern, stating he has little doubt the death toll will rise as investigations deepen. As recovery efforts continue, the community braces for difficult days ahead, united in sorrow and uncertainty. Sources: CNN, Hindustan Times Zaima Humaira contributed to this article What's your Reaction? +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0
