The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people says he hardly believed he was alive, as he recounted seeing others dying near him as he escaped out of a broken emergency exit.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who police said was in seat 11A near the emergency exit and managed to squeeze through the broken hatch, was filmed after Thursday’s crash limping on the street in a blood-stained T-shirt with bruises on his face.
That social media footage of Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, has been broadcast across India’s news channels since the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted in a ball of fire after it plummeted onto a medical college hostel moments after taking off from Ahmedabad.
‘I don’t believe how I survived’
It was the worst aviation disaster in a decade and his escape is being hailed as the “miracle of seat 11A”.
“I don’t believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die,” the 40-year-old told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed on Friday local time.
“But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others (died).”
He was travelling with his brother Ajay, who had been seated in a different row, members of his family have said.
“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did,” Ramesh said.
“The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall so nobody could have come out of there.”
Ramesh suffered burns and bruises and has been kept under observation, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad said.
Police said some people at the hostel and others on the ground were also killed in the crash.
Ramesh said the plane seemed to come to a standstill in midair for a few seconds shortly after take-off and the green and white cabin lights were turned on.
He said he could feel the engine thrust increasing, but then the plane “crashed with speed into the hostel”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in his home state of Gujarat to visit the crash site, met Ramesh in hospital on Friday.
Crash investigations continue as black box found
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said on Friday it has recovered the digital flight data recorder, or the black box, of an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad from a rooftop near the crash site.
It said the bureau has begun its work with “full force”.
The black box recovery marks an important step forward in the investigation, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a social media post.
Separately, the country’s civil aviation regulator issued an order directing Air India to do additional maintenance and enhanced safety inspections of its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners equipped with General Electric’s GEnx engines.
The key inspections include fuel parameters, cabin air compressor, engine control system, hydraulic system and a review of take-off parameters, according to the order.
