Seat 11A: The Man Who Walked Out Alive
Ahmedabad — In a devastating blow to India’s aviation history, Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787–8 Dreamliner en route to London Gatwick, crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday afternoon. The tragedy claimed 241 lives, including 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and five medical students on the ground. Miraculously, only one person survived — Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British-Indian businessman seated in 11A.
The incident occurred at approximately 1:38 PM IST.
Moments after lifting off from runway 23, the aircraft lost altitude and
plummeted into a multi-storey hostel housing resident doctors from BJ Medical
College in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area. The crash site quickly turned into a
scene of smoldering debris and tragedy.
A Dazed Walk from Destruction
Ramesh, who sustained multiple injuries, emerged from
the wreckage bloodied and burned, but alive. His brother, seated just across
the aisle in 11J, was among the many who perished. Speaking to Doordarshan from
his hospital bed, Ramesh described the horror:
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die.”
Now recovering under tight security in Ward B7 of
Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, Ramesh remains under 24-hour medical supervision,
with officers from Gujarat ATS and the city crime branch guarding his room.
Mayday Before Mayhem
According to preliminary air traffic control records,
the aircraft ascended normally before the cockpit issued a Mayday call.
Eyewitnesses near the airport reported an abnormal engine sound, followed by a
nosedive. Within seconds, the plane struck the hostel’s southern block, leading
to the catastrophic impact.
The aircraft was captained by Sumeet Sabharwal, a senior
Line Training Captain with over 8,200 hours of flight experience, and First
Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 hours. Both perished in the crash.
The Lucky Row: 11A
Seat 11A, located in the front row of economy class
behind the business section and near an emergency exit, became an unlikely zone
of survival. When the aircraft hit the hostel, the front-left fuselage —
including Ramesh’s row — crumpled into the ground floor rather than the upper
levels, which bore the brunt of the destruction.
“There was space. When the door broke, I saw an opening
and I just jumped out,” Ramesh recalled.
The opposite side was sealed off by fire and debris. “The door must’ve
broken on impact. I don’t know how, but I ran.”
Photos from the crash site corroborate Ramesh’s account — while the tail and midsection were engulfed in flames and reduced to rubble, the front section had partially detached, creating a narrow corridor that likely saved his life.
Visit from the Prime Minister
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site and later
met with Ramesh at the hospital.
“He asked me what happened. I told him I don’t know how I lived. It all
happened so fast,” Ramesh shared.
Echoes of Other Lone Survivor Stories
Ramesh’s survival places him among a rare group of
aviation accident survivors. Similar stories include:
·
Cecelia Cichan, aged four, who survived the Northwest Flight 255 crash in Detroit
(1987).
·
Bahia Bakari, 12, who lived through the Yemenia Flight 626 disaster near the
Comoros Islands (2009).
·
Jim Polehinke, co-pilot and sole survivor of the 2006 Comair Flight 5191 crash in
Kentucky.
While the cause of the AI-171 crash is under thorough
investigation by Indian aviation authorities and Air India, Ramesh’s story of
survival against unimaginable odds is already being described as nothing short
of miraculous.
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