By RAJESH ROY Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — The lone passenger who survived the Air India crash that killed 241 people onboard couldn’t believe he was alive when he opened his eyes, surrounded by flames, debris and charred bodies.
The British national of Indian origin, Viswashkumar Ramesh, was headed to London when the flight crashed minutes after taking off from India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon.
It was one of India’s worst aviation disasters and the first crash for a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner since the widebody, twin-engine planes went into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Currently admitted in a local government hospital, Ramesh narrated his ordeal to India’s national broadcaster, saying the aircraft seemed stuck midair within a few seconds of the takeoff.
He said green and white lights came on, and right after that, the aircraft accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before it crashed.
Seated in 11A, Ramesh said his side of the plane fell onto the ground floor of a building, and there was space for him to escape after the door broke open. He unfastened his seat belt and forced himself out of the plane.
“When I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,” he said.
Ramesh sustained burn injuries on his left hand and walked some distance in shock before he was assisted by the locals and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the crash side on Friday, met the lone survivor.
“I told Modi what all I had witnessed. He also enquired about my health,” Ramesh said from his hospital bed.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated him, said he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body but seems to be out of danger.
Ramesh, who had his boarding pass with him in the hospital, said he saw several passengers and crew members losing their lives and parts of the plane strewn around the crash site.
Ramesh was traveling with his brother and called relatives in Leicester after the crash, his cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC. He has a wife and “little boy” at home.
“He only said that he’s fine, nothing else,” Valgi said, adding that the family is “happy that he’s OK, but we’re still upset about the other brother.”
Ramesh’s brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh ,told Sky News that his brother called his father moments after the crash to say he had survived.
“He video called my dad as he crashed and said, ‘Oh the plane’s crashed. I don’t know where my brother is. I don’t see any other passengers. I don’t know how I’m alive, how I exited the plane’,” he told Sky.