How one passenger survived the Air India plane crash that left hundreds dead
Ramesh Viswashkumar is the only known survivor out of the 242 people onboard an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday, June 12.
Speaking from his hospital bed, the 40-year-old told Indian media that he was a British national and was travelling to Britain with his brother after visiting family in India.
"Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn't believe how I managed to come out alive from that," he said from his hospital bed, speaking in Hindi to national broadcaster DD News.
"Within a minute after takeoff, suddenly... it felt like something got stuck... I realized something had happened, and then suddenly the plane's green and white lights turned on," Viswashkumar said.
"After that, the plane seemed to speed up, heading straight towards what turned out to be a hostel of a hospital. Everything was visible in front of my eyes when the crash happened."
'I thought I was about to die'
According to Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior police officer in Ahmedabad, Viswashkumar had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and "managed to escape by jumping out the emergency door."
"Initially, I, too, thought that I was about to die," Viswashkumar said, "but then I opened my eyes and realized that I was still alive."
"I saw the air hostess and aunties and uncles all in front of me," he said, his voice trailing off in emotion, using a term of respect used in India for older people.
"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," he added. "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."
Social media footage shown on Indian news channels showed a man in a bloodstained white t-shirt and dark pants limping on a street and being helped by a medic. The man had bruises on his face and a goatee beard, resembling photographs of Viswashkumar in hospital after the crash that were published by local media.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video, in which people gathered around the man and asked him where were the other passengers, to which he replied "they're all inside."
A photo of Viswashkumar's boarding pass shown online by the Hindustan Times showed that he was seated in seat 11A of the plane bound for Gatwick Airport.
Miracle survivor of Air India crash was in 11A, often called ‘most hated’ seat on flightshttps://t.co/H6isVO1mx0
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) June 12, 2025
Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times that his brother Ajay had been seated in a different row on the plane and asked for help to find him.
A member of Viswashkumar's family based in Britain, who requested anonymity, told Reuters over the phone that he had survived and that the family was in touch with him, but declined to share further details.
Ajay Valgi, a cousin of Viswashkumar who lives in Leicester, central England, told the BBC that Viswashkumar spoke by phone to confirm he was all right. "He only said that he was fine, nothing else," Valgi said.
Valgi said the family had not heard anything about his brother. "We're not doing well. We're all upset," he said.
Viswashkumar is married with one child, a boy, he added.
The aircraft came down in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch time, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
More than 240 people were killed in the crash. The dead included some on the ground. Police said a previously shared death toll of 294 was wrong due to some double-counted body parts.
Police said Viswashkumar was the sole passenger known so far to have survived but added that rescue operations were still ongoing.
"Chances are that there might be more survivors among the injured who are being treated in the hospital," Chaudhary said. (Reuters, with reports from AFP)
