“I Opened My Seatbelt and Got Out” British Survivor Shares Harrowing Air India Plane Crash Story
The sole survivor of the tragic Air India plane crash has given a chilling account of how he escaped moments before the aircraft turned into a massive fireball.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, a British citizen living in London with his wife and child, miraculously survived the crash that claimed the lives of nearly all 242 passengers and crew.
Ramesh, now recovering at a hospital in Ahmedabad, described the terrifying moments after takeoff. He told doctors and reporters that the plane suddenly began to descend and then split in two, throwing him out before a massive explosion rocked the site.
“I don’t know how I came out of it alive. For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. I opened my seatbelt and got out of there,” Ramesh told India’s Doordarshan network.
He added that he watched two cabin crew members die before his eyes, a memory that will haunt him forever.
Ramesh was seated next to the emergency door, which tore off when the plane hit the ground. He recalled how the pilots tried desperately to lift the jet, but it slammed at full speed into a building.
Eyewitness footage from the scene showed Ramesh, bloodied and injured, walking away from the wreckage before being rushed to hospital.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated him, said, “He was disoriented with multiple injuries, but he seems to be out of danger.”
Heartbreakingly, Ramesh’s brother, who was also on the flight, is feared dead.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran,” Ramesh said. “There were pieces of the plane everywhere. Someone grabbed me and got me into an ambulance.”
