Last week’s Air India Flight 171 crash claimed the lives of nearly 280 people in the plane and on the ground, yet somehow, one of the passengers lived to tell the tale. I’m not much of a believer in miracles, but this is about as close as we’re going to get.
There were 242 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner when it crashed into a building shortly after taking off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India. 241 were killed by the impact, intense heat and smoke, but not Viswash Kumar Ramesh. In the hours following the crash, footage began popping up online with wounds on his face and blood on his shirt, according to the New York Times. He was seen walking himself to an ambulance with a small limp and a crowd around him saying he had come “from inside” the plane. It’s truly astonishing.
A survival against all odds
At first, it seemed like this was a mistake or a hoax because of how badly harmed many of the bodies found at the crash site were, but by the end of the day, Air India confirmed that there was one survivor who was being treated at the hospital. Here’s what the 38-year-old said in an interview. From the New York Times:
“I still can’t believe how I got out alive,” Mr. Ramesh said. […] “I thought I was also about to die.”
Mr. Ramesh, who was seated in an exit row, said the plane had felt “stuck five or 10 seconds after takeoff,” and it seemed to be trying to accelerate when it crashed.
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The front of the plane, after hitting buildings, crashed into an open area, he said, while the tail was stuck in a building, which was later identified as the dining facility of a medical college.
Ramesh told The Times that he unbuckled his seat right after the crash when he saw a way to get out. He didn’t make it clear if he had to open the emergency exit he was sitting next to or if it opened during impact. Either way, he was able to get out without being seriously injured.
“When my door broke, I saw there was some space — that I could try to get out,” he said in the interview. “The other side, people couldn’t get out, as it was crushed against a wall.”
The incredibly lucky man — a British citizen — was on his way back to England after a vacation to India with his brother Ajay. He was seated in 11J on the right side of the plane, and was killed in the crash, Just after the crash, Ramesh made a video call to his family near the wreckage to confirm he was safe, according to NYT.
This incident wasn’t the first time a single person survived a horrific crash. Back in 1987, a four-year-old was the sole survivor of a crash in Detroit that killed 156 people. There is a place you can sit on a plane that will give you the best chance of survival, but oddly, Ramesh wasn’t sitting in one of these seats on his flight.