Latest news with #airdisaster
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
The astonishing stories of five air crash sole survivors
A British national has been named as the only survivor of the Air India disaster in Ahmedabad. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, was returning to the UK after visiting family with his brother, who was also on the flight in a different row. Remarkable footage taken shortly after the crash shows a bloodied Ramesh walking through a crowd. '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 told the Hindustan Times from hospital. Throughout history, there have been at least 100 examples of sole survivors emerging from the wreckage of air disasters, covering military, cargo and commercial aircraft. The first example was on March 17, 1929, when Lou Foote, the 34-year-old pilot of a sightseeing plane, survived a crash in Newark, New Jersey. What is notable is the young age of many of these survivors. Of the 77 whose ages are known, the average age is 24 and the oldest is 52. The youngest, a Thai national who survived a Vietnam Airlines crash in 2003, was just 14 months old. Given the inevitably high death tolls, each story of a sole survivor is both remarkable and tragic, particularly when there is a child involved. The following five are among the best-known case studies in aviation history. On Christmas Eve 1971, Juliane Koepcke boarded a domestic flight in Peru with her mother, Maria. They did so against the advice of Koepcke's father, Hans-Wilhelm, who warned of LANSA's poor safety record. The plane was struck by lightning in mid-flight and the plane rapidly began to fall apart, before losing altitude. Kopecke recalls the experience of falling, while still strapped into her row of seats, for 10,000ft (3,000m) into the thick of the Amazon rainforest. Miraculously, Juliane Koepcke survived the fall with an eye injury, a cut on her right arm, a broken collarbone and concussion. There are various theories as to how she survived the fall, but it is thought that the updraught of the thunderstorm, the dense canopy of the forest and the fact she was attached to a row of three seats – acting as a kind of crude parachute – could have contributed. She spent 11 days following a creek within the jungle, during which she suffered a botfly larvae infestation in her wounded arm. On the ninth day, she came across a lumberjack encampment where she was offered rudimentary medical assistance (gasoline was poured on her arm) and put on an 11-hour canoe to the nearest inhabited area, where she was airlifted to hospital. Her mother did not survive the accident. Koepcke, now 70, went on to become an expert in mammalogy, specialising in bats. Today she works as a librarian at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich. Vesna Vulović is believed to be the person to have survived the highest fall without a parachute, at an altitude of 6.31 miles (33,333ft). When a briefcase bomb exploded on the JAT flight, at this point at cruising altitude, the plane broke apart over a remote Czechoslovakian village. It is believed that Vulović survived because while all of the other passengers and flight crew were blown out of the aircraft, Vulović was unwittingly pinned inside the fuselage by a food trolley. Because the fuselage landed in a thickly wooded, snow-covered mountainside, it is thought that the impact was softened. The fact that Vulović had a history of low blood pressure, causing her to pass out as the cabin depressurised, could have also helped her to survive the fall. After the crash, Vulović suffered a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, as well as a fractured pelvis and several broken ribs. Within a year of the accident she had regained the ability to walk, although she suffered from a limp for the rest of her life. In a later interview with the New York Times, she was asked why she thought she survived the accident. 'Serbian stubbornness,' she said. 'And a childhood diet of chocolate, spinach and fish oil.' The deadliest accident to date with a sole survivor (a record which may be revised once the final death toll of the Air India disaster is confirmed) occurred shortly after take-off in Detroit. Then aged just four, Cecelia Cichan was travelling home to Tempe, Arizona alongside her mother, father and six-year-old brother. While searching the wreckage, firemen found Cichan still strapped into her seat, having sustained third degree burns and fractures to her skull, collarbone and left leg. As the subject of intense media interest, Cichan received more than $150,000 in donations that was put into a trust. In an interview with the Daily Mirror in 2012, she said: 'I never go on a day without thinking about the people on Flight 255,' she said. 'It's kind of hard not to think about it. When I look in the mirror, I have visual scars'. She had an aeroplane tattooed onto her wrist, as a daily reminder of the tragedy that she survived. The Yemenia Airbus A310-324 had been in service for 19 years, accumulating 53,000 flight hours when it crashed off the north coast of Grande Comore, Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. Later investigations found that, amid strong winds, the airline stalled and crashed into the sea. Since the Comoros had no sea-rescue capacity, French military aircraft and a boat from neighbouring islands Réunion and Mayotte were sent to conduct a formal search effort. The plane wreckage was found off the coastal town of Mitsamiouli, and among the bodies was 12-year-old Bahia Bakari, who was seen holding onto a piece of debris in the water. It later emerged she had been clinging onto it for 13 hours. With the help of local fishermen, Bakari was rescued and taken to a hospital in Paris with a fractured collarbone, hypothermia and cuts to her face. In the early morning on May 12, an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330-202 approached Tripoli Airport in Libya. The conditions were calm, with good visibility, and the crew was cleared to continue their approach. As the aircraft approached the runway, however, the crew was alerted that the weather had deteriorated and that the airport was shrouded in mist. After one failed landing attempt, the aircraft crashed just beside the runway at a speed of 302mph. On board were passengers from several countries including the United Kingdom, France and the United States. The sole survivor was a nine-year-old Dutch boy named Ruben van Assouw, who had been on safari with his family (all of whom died in the accident). The child had multiple fractures in both legs, but no life threatening injuries. It is believed he survived because he was flung from the wreckage moments before it burst into flames. Van Assouw's survival story was partial inspiration for Ann Napolitano's coming-of-age novel, Dear Edward, about the sole survivor of a plane crash. The book was later adapted into a TV series. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
The astonishing stories of five air crash sole survivors
A British national has been named as the only survivor of the Air India disaster in Ahmedabad. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, was returning to the UK after visiting family with his brother, who was also on the flight in a different row. Remarkable footage taken shortly after the crash shows a bloodied Ramesh walking through a crowd. '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 told the Hindustan Times from hospital. Throughout history, there have been at least 100 examples of sole survivors emerging from the wreckage of air disasters, covering military, cargo and commercial aircraft. The first example was on March 17, 1929, when Lou Foote, the 34-year-old pilot of a sightseeing plane, survived a crash in Newark, New Jersey. What is notable is the young age of many of these survivors. Of the 77 whose ages are known, the average age is 24 and the oldest is 52. The youngest, a Thai national who survived a Vietnam Airlines crash in 2003, was just 14 months old. Given the inevitably high death tolls, each story of a sole survivor is both remarkable and tragic, particularly when there is a child involved. The following five are among the best-known case studies in aviation history. On Christmas Eve 1971, Juliane Koepcke boarded a domestic flight in Peru with her mother, Maria. They did so against the advice of Koepcke's father, Hans-Wilhelm, who warned of LANSA's poor safety record. The plane was struck by lightning in mid-flight and the plane rapidly began to fall apart, before losing altitude. Kopecke recalls the experience of falling, while still strapped into her row of seats, for 10,000ft (3,000m) into the thick of the Amazon rainforest. Miraculously, Juliane Koepcke survived the fall with an eye injury, a cut on her right arm, a broken collarbone and concussion. There are various theories as to how she survived the fall, but it is thought that the updraught of the thunderstorm, the dense canopy of the forest and the fact she was attached to a row of three seats – acting as a kind of crude parachute – could have contributed. She spent 11 days following a creek within the jungle, during which she suffered a botfly larvae infestation in her wounded arm. On the ninth day, she came across a lumberjack encampment where she was offered rudimentary medical assistance (gasoline was poured on her arm) and put on an 11-hour canoe to the nearest inhabited area, where she was airlifted to hospital. Her mother did not survive the accident. Koepcke, now 70, went on to become an expert in mammalogy, specialising in bats. Today she works as a librarian at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich. Vesna Vulović is believed to be the person to have survived the highest fall without a parachute, at an altitude of 6.31 miles (33,333ft). When a briefcase bomb exploded on the JAT flight, at this point at cruising altitude, the plane broke apart over a remote Czechoslovakian village. It is believed that Vulović survived because while all of the other passengers and flight crew were blown out of the aircraft, Vulović was unwittingly pinned inside the fuselage by a food trolley. Because the fuselage landed in a thickly wooded, snow-covered mountainside, it is thought that the impact was softened. The fact that Vulović had a history of low blood pressure, causing her to pass out as the cabin depressurised, could have also helped her to survive the fall. After the crash, Vulović suffered a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, as well as a fractured pelvis and several broken ribs. Within a year of the accident she had regained the ability to walk, although she suffered from a limp for the rest of her life. In a later interview with the New York Times, she was asked why she thought she survived the accident. 'Serbian stubbornness,' she said. 'And a childhood diet of chocolate, spinach and fish oil.' The deadliest accident to date with a sole survivor (a record which may be revised once the final death toll of the Air India disaster is confirmed) occurred shortly after take-off in Detroit. Then aged just four, Cecelia Cichan was travelling home to Tempe, Arizona alongside her mother, father and six-year-old brother. While searching the wreckage, firemen found Cichan still strapped into her seat, having sustained third degree burns and fractures to her skull, collarbone and left leg. As the subject of intense media interest, Cichan received more than $150,000 in donations that was put into a trust. In an interview with the Daily Mirror in 2012, she said: 'I never go on a day without thinking about the people on Flight 255,' she said. 'It's kind of hard not to think about it. When I look in the mirror, I have visual scars'. She had an aeroplane tattooed onto her wrist, as a daily reminder of the tragedy that she survived. The Yemenia Airbus A310-324 had been in service for 19 years, accumulating 53,000 flight hours when it crashed off the north coast of Grande Comore, Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. Later investigations found that, amid strong winds, the airline stalled and crashed into the sea. Since the Comoros had no sea-rescue capacity, French military aircraft and a boat from neighbouring islands Réunion and Mayotte were sent to conduct a formal search effort. The plane wreckage was found off the coastal town of Mitsamiouli, and among the bodies was 12-year-old Bahia Bakari, who was seen holding onto a piece of debris in the water. It later emerged she had been clinging onto it for 13 hours. With the help of local fishermen, Bakari was rescued and taken to a hospital in Paris with a fractured collarbone, hypothermia and cuts to her face. In the early morning on May 12, an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330-202 approached Tripoli Airport in Libya. The conditions were calm, with good visibility, and the crew was cleared to continue their approach. As the aircraft approached the runway, however, the crew was alerted that the weather had deteriorated and that the airport was shrouded in mist. After one failed landing attempt, the aircraft crashed just beside the runway at a speed of 302mph. On board were passengers from several countries including the United Kingdom, France and the United States. The sole survivor was a nine-year-old Dutch boy named Ruben van Assouw, who had been on safari with his family (all of whom died in the accident). The child had multiple fractures in both legs, but no life threatening injuries. It is believed he survived because he was flung from the wreckage moments before it burst into flames. Van Assouw's survival story was partial inspiration for Ann Napolitano's coming-of-age novel, Dear Edward, about the sole survivor of a plane crash. The book was later adapted into a TV series.
Independent Singapore
5 hours ago
- General
- Independent Singapore
More than 240 killed in Air India crash, one survivor in hospital
More than 240 people were killed when an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London crashed minutes after takeoff from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Thursday (June 12), authorities said, in the world's worst airline disaster in a decade. The plane came down in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel during lunch hour. The airline confirmed that all but one of the 242 people on board had died. The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital, the carrier said. Ramesh Viswashkumar, 40, a British national who was in India for a few days to visit his family, told the Hindustan Times from his hospital bed: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed'. 'It all happened so quickly,' he said. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran.' Ramesh, who was assigned seat 11A near the emergency exit, is reported to have jumped from the plane. 'There were pieces of the plane all around me,' he added. 'Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.' Ramesh, who suffered injuries on his chest, eyes and feet, spoke about his brother Ajay, who was seated in a different row on the plane. 'He was travelling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him,' he said. A top police officer said they were still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed. Forty-one people were being treated in hospital, said the Ahmedabad police commissioner. See also Netherlands' Geert Wilders reminding Europeans of the 1930s? Another police officer revised down earlier reports of 294 dead, explaining some bodies had been double-counted. The official death toll will be announced after DNA verification, said Indian Home Minister Amit Shah. Parts of the plane's body were scattered around the building it hit. The aircraft's tail was stuck on top of the building. Flight AI171 to London's Gatwick airport was carrying 12 crew members and 230 passengers, most of whom were Indian and British nationals, The passengers on board included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, Air India said. Air India, previously a state-owned airline, was taken over by the Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022 and merged with Vistara — a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines — in 2024. Problems reported on aircraft A man claimed he flew from Delhi to Ahmedabad on the same aircraft hours before it crashed while taking off for London. Akash Vatsa, an entrepreneur, tweeted on X: 'I was in the same d*** flight 2 hours before it took off from AMD. I came in this from DEL-AMD. Noticed unusual things in the place. Made a video to tweet to @airindia. I would want to give more details.' Vatsa uploaded videos from inside the aircraft, highlighting problems with the air-conditioning and the in-flight entertainment system. 'We are almost about to taxi. But the AC is not working. Look at everyone. AC is not working at all. And as usual, the TV screens are not working,' he said in a video, reported Mint. Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger planes. It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, which began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The Dreamliner that crashed flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said. Television channels reported that the crash occurred just after the plane took off at 1.39 pm local time. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft began a slow descent with its landing gear extended before exploding in a giant fireball, reported Bloomberg. The twin-engine plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet (190.5 metres) at a speed of 174 knots, or about 200 miles per hour, according to data from Flightradar24. The aircraft pilots issued a Mayday call immediately after take-off, according to India's civil aviation regulator, but did not respond to subsequent calls from air traffic controllers. The Dreamliner was being flown by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. 'The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. 'It is heartbreaking beyond words.' Ahmedabad is the main city in Modi's home state of Gujarat. The airport is operated by India's Adani Group conglomerate. 'We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragedy of Air India Flight 171,' Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of the group, posted on X. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the images of the crash were 'devastating' and added that he was being kept informed of the situation. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated. This is the worst airline crash since the Malaysian Airways MH17 in 2014, which was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people, according to Aviation Safety Network. Boeing shares fell 6% in early US trading. The company said it was 'working to gather more information' about the tragedy, reported Reuters. Boeing has been involved in several accidents in recent years, including two fatal crashes — Lion Air Flight 610 crashed on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. Air India operates 34 Boeing 787 aircraft, according to data from aviation consultant Cirium. Most are more than 10 years old, the oldest nearly 14. In all, the airline has 192 Boeing and Airbus SE aircraft. In 2023, the Tatas placed a massive order for 470 planes to rejuvenate the fleet. The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 when a Boeing 737 belonging to Air India Express, the airline's low-cost subsidiary, overshot a runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India and plunged into a valley. Twenty-one people were killed in that crash. Air India's last major crash was in 1985 when Flight 182, a Boeing 747 aircraft, was destroyed by a bomb over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board. Featured image from Wikimedia Commons (for illustration purposes only).
Sky News
21 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
India crash is fresh setback in Boeing's bid to restore its reputation
As hundreds lie dead following the latest tragedy to beset a Boeing passenger plane, is is too early to determine blame. Pilot error, engine failure and bird strikes are among the theories all being banded about. Only the recovery of flight AI171's black box flight recorders are likely to provide the concrete answers. What is inescapable though is that this is an air disaster the plane's maker, Boeing, could well do without. Plane crash latest: 53 Britons on board It sounds petty, in the midst of such a catastrophe, to be talking about the impact on a company but this has been an civil aviation giant left deeply scarred, in the public eye, through its attitude to safety in recent years. While the 787 Dreamliner's record had been impressive up until today, the same can not be said for the company's 737 MAX planes. The entire fleet was grounded globally for almost two years following the demise of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 outside Addis Ababa in March 2019. All 157 people aboard were killed. Six months earlier, a Lion Air 737 MAX, carrying 189 passengers and crew, crashed in Indonesia. At fault was flight control software that has since been rectified. That recent past continues to haunt Boeing. It took those crashes to uncover a culture of cover-up. It amounted to not only a corporate failure but one of regulation and justice too, according to critics, as relatives were denied their days in court due to plea bargains. 1:31 Just last month, the US Justice Department and Boeing agreed a non-prosecution agreement over those two fatal crashes in return for $1.1bn in fines and an admission that it obstructed the investigation. It raises several questions over the US legal system and its ability to police corporate activity and incentivise playing by the rules. Would a British manufacturer have been offered such a deal by US prosecutors? As for regulation, we're told oversight has been stepped up and the number of planes that Boeing makes is still subject to controls in a bid to boost quality. Read more: The company has long denied putting profit before safety but that is what almost every whistleblower to have come forward to date has alleged. The production limits were implemented after a mid-air door plug blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight in January last year. They are hampering Boeing's efforts to restore profitability. A 5% fall in its share price at the market open on Wall Street goes to the heart of Boeing's problem. That is every time a Boeing plane is involved in an accident or failure, investors' first instincts are to run for the hills. Boeing says it is seeking more information on the nature of the Air India crash.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Which Boeing jets are most likely to crash? How world's largest aviation firm has faced scrutiny over its safety and reliability after series of fatal accidents
The Ahmedabad air disaster is yet another tragedy involving Boeing. The Air India 787-8 Dreamliner jet, due to land at London Gatwick at 6pm today, came down on top of homes in the Meghani area of the largest city in the state of Gujarat less than a minute after taking off. The airline, the flag carrier of India, has said it is investigating the cause of crash on a plane feared to be carrying 242 passengers and crew to the UK from India. It is the latest in a tragic spate of incidents involving crisis-hit Boeing and its planes. Just six days ago the plane maker reached a $1.1 billion (£812 million) deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over crashes involving a 737 Max plane that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Both disasters were later traced to faulty flight control systems, leading to the worldwide grounding of the 737 Max fleet for nearly two years. Last December a Boeing jet skidded off a runway in South Korea, crashing into a concrete wall, causing the plane to burst into flames. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 were killed - the youngest victim being a three-year-old boy. In the November a Boeing 737 cargo plane lost control on approach to Lithuania and crashed into a house, killing one and injuring three. And weeks earlier a Boeing 737 carrying 78 passengers caught fire and suffered serious damage when a failed takeoff attempt sent it skidding off the runway and into the bush at an airport in Senegal. In May 2024 America's Federal Aviation Administration announced a new safety investigation into beleaguered jet maker Boeing. The Wall Street Journal reported the target of the investigation is whether Boeing fulfilled safety inspection requirements on all of its troublesome 787 jets. Regulators claimed that Boeing disclosed to them that their employees may have skipped some inspections on 787 Dreamliner planes. May 8 2024: A FedEx Airlines Boeing 767 cargo plane landed at Istanbul Airport without the front landing gear deployed The FAA added that it was investigating 'whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.' Three months the FAA issued a mandatory inspection order for Boeing 787 Dreamliners. And in March 2024 a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 suffered a horror flight incident that left more than 50 people injured, one seriously, when the plane nosedived. The airline and passengers aboard the Sydney-Auckland flight said the plane with 263 passengers and nine crew members on board dropped abruptly mid-air. On January 5 last year, a doorplug blew out midair on an Alaska Airlines flight. The Alaska Airlines plane that had its door blow out mid-flight at 16,000ft was a 737 Max 9. Last year a Boeing whistleblower called for a criminal investigation to be opened into the beleaguered company because their 'planes are not safe'. Former senior manager at Boeing Ed Pierson said there have been too many faults with the planes. The executive director of the Foundation of Aviation Safety has called for authorities to open up a criminal investigation as he fired a disturbing warning: 'These airplanes are not safe. They are still not safe.' Nobody was hurt during the midair incident. Accident investigators determined that bolts that helped secure the panel to the frame of the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the piece blew off. The mishap has further battered Boeing's reputation and led to multiple civil and criminal investigations. Now, Mr Pierson has suggested Boeing may have failed to meet the FAA's deadline and requested an extension after it was told to produce a turnaround plan following the blowout. Mr Peirson told BBC Radio 4 this morning there needs to be action rather than words. He said: 'What really needs to happen, as we have said before, is there needs to be a full criminal investigation because these airplanes are not safe. They are still not safe.' Last week Boeing reached a deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over crashes involving a 737 Max plane that killed 346 people. The agreement, outlined in a court filing this week, will see the aerospace giant pay $1.1 billion (£812 million), including a $487.2 million criminal penalty, half of which was already paid in a previous settlement. The deal would also see $444.5m (£328m) in compensation to families of the crash victims. But move has been blasted by the victims' families' lawyer, Sanjiv Singh, who told the BBC the deal was a 'morally repugnant' escape which allowed the firm to 'sidestep true criminal accountability'. If approved by a federal judge, the deal would protect the firm from a criminal fraud trial. The two Boeing 737 Max crashes, which happened less than five months apart, claimed 346 lives and sparked global outrage. In October 2018, Lion Air flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, in Indonesia killing all 189 people on board. Then, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed minutes after departing Addis Ababa, resulting in the deaths of 157 passengers and crew.
