The miracle survivor from seat 11A from the Air India Ahmedabad Crash- The Story Behind His Escape
AI-171 bound to London Gatwick crashed minutes after takeoff with 242 passengers on board including crew and pilots.
Air India confirmed 241 passengers dead and 1 confirmed survivor, an Indian national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh travelling with his brother was seated one row forward of the over-wing emergency exit, a by chance occurrence when he requested the airport staff to switch his seat to a window seat for his journey from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
The Boeing 787-8 AI-717 Dreamliner was delivered to Air India in Jan 2014 and is 11.5 years old. When the plane took impact The crash tore an opening next to his seat, he was quick to unbuckle and crawl out of the opening and took a jump to the ground escaping the fire engulfing the aircraft, The aircraft was fully fueled with 1.25lakh litres of fuel for it’s long journey to Gatwick, a full tank magnified the damage upon impact.
Mr Vishwash was quickly escorted to the an ambulance upon reaching the ground in the few statements that he made he mentioned his brother Ajay stating “Where is my brother? Find Ajay.” furthermore he said “I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air-hostesses, the man across the aisle… I still don’t know how I’m alive.” He also mentioned teh captain over PA calling ‘MAYDAY’ ‘MAYDAY’. He was admitted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the survivor who spoke to him and mentioned “Sir, in 30 seconds everything was fire… bodies all around me. I saw a hole, crawled and jumped.” To which PM replied “The whole country is praying for you. Be strong, we will take care of whatever you need.”
Mr Vishwash’s 33-second description of the flight will be cross-matched with the cockpit voice recorder to better reconstruct the final moments before the plane took a hit
The black boxes from the flight were recovered and more information is expected to be disclosed this week.
