Viswashkumar Ramesh, the only survivor of Thursday’s Air India crash, meets with House Affairs Minister Amit Shah at a hospital in Ahmedabad.
Indian Ministry of House Affairs/AP
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Indian Ministry of House Affairs/AP
The only real survivor of the Air India crash that killed over 240 individuals additionally does not know the way he made it out alive.
However, mendacity in a hospital mattress on Friday morning, Viswashkumar Ramesh did his greatest to elucidate.
“I can not consider myself how I got here out of it alive, as a result of for some time I assumed I used to be going to die as properly,” Ramesh told Indian national broadcaster DD Information. “However after I opened my eyes, I noticed that I used to be alive. So I attempted to open my seat belt, and I used to be in a position to get out.”
Ramesh was one of many 242 individuals on board the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which crashed within the northwestern Indian metropolis of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday.
Everybody else on board died, and authorities say casualties will doubtless additionally embrace individuals who have been inside a medical school hostel that the aircraft struck.
Ramesh, whom India Air identified as “a British nationwide of Indian origin,” lives in London along with his spouse and little one. The 40-year-old was returning to the U.Ok. along with his brother after visiting household overseas when tragedy struck.
“After takeoff, after 5-10 seconds, it appeared just like the plane was caught,” he mentioned, including that inexperienced and white lights got here on contained in the aircraft earlier than it hit the constructing.
Movies from the scene counsel the aircraft was within the air for only about half a minute earlier than descending and crashing in a blaze of fireside.
Ramesh was sitting in seat 11A — a window seat within the first exit row of ordinary financial system — in response to a passenger list launched by the airline. He mentioned his a part of the aircraft landed “on the bottom ground” of the hostel — and he seen the emergency door was broken by the affect.
“When my door broke, I noticed there was a little bit of house,” Ramesh mentioned. “So I attempted to get out and I used to be in a position to get out.”
