Emergency workers still can't believe one passenger survived Ahmedabad Air India crash

Ahmedabad: Until they cross-checked the visuals and the flight manifest, emergency responders of the 108 Ambulance service could not believe that they had indeed rescued the sole survivor from the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad Thursday.

Satinder Singh Sandhu, a 108 emergency management executive, said when they found Vishwas Kumar, the British national who survived the crash, was in confused state and wanted to walk back to the plane that was still in flames, saying he had family members travelling on the same flight. "I put him in an ambulance and sent him to hospital without knowing that he was the sole survivor of the crash," he told ET.

Sandhu said he was having lunch at his office at the 1,200-bed new complex of the Civil hospital, which is about 200 meters away from the crash site, on Thursday when he heard a loud sound. He immediately mobilised five ambulances available there and rushed to the spot. "Initially I thought it was a big accident," he said. "But the fire and the smoke there told us that it was something much bigger, and probably an air crash."


Sandhu called his superior Jitendra Shahi, who rushed 25 more ambulances to the spot. "Meanwhile, we saw a wounded security guard and sent him to hospital," Sandhu said. "And then, we saw a man walking out of the building premises somewhat wounded. Initially we thought he was someone from the building who had probably jumped out of the building."

As they were taking the confused-looking man to the hospital, he told the paramedic in the ambulance that he was travelling to London in that plane, said Shahi. They did not believe him initially. "Later in the evening, when we checked the visual, cross-checked his name with the flight manifest, it was only then we realised that he was indeed the sole survivor of the crash," said Shahi.