By Abiola Olawale
The lone survivor of the catastrophic Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh has finally broken his silence from the hospital where he is receiving medical care.
Ramesh, a 40-year-old passenger seated on 11A, is the only survivor of a disaster that shattered families and stunned the world, as of press time.
Speaking to the press he said: “Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn’t believe how I managed to come out alive from that.”
“Within a minute after takeoff, suddenly… it felt like something got stuck… I realised something had happened, and then suddenly the plane’s green and white lights turned on.
“After that, the plane seemed to speed up, heading straight towards what turned out to be a hostel or a hospital. Everything was visible in front of my eyes when the crash happened.
“Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive.
“I unfastened my seatbelt and tried to escape, and I did,” he said.
“I think the side I was on was not facing the hostel. Where I landed was closer to the ground and there was space too – and when my door broke — I saw that there was space, and I thought I could try to slip out.”
This comes after an Air India 787 Dreamliner, Flight AI171, tragically crashed on Thursday while en route to London Gatwick, resulting in the confirmation of over 226 fatalities.
The ill-fated flight, carrying 242 passengers—including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian—plunged into the densely populated Meghani area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, shortly after departing from the airport in India.
