Air India plane crash, fire, silence - and then, Vishwas

Vishwas Kumar Ramesh still cannot believe that he survived Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad that killed all the remaining 241 people on board the Air India flight to London.

"It all happened in front of my eyes. I cannot believe how I survived," Ramesh, a resident of Leicester, told a TV channel. "For a brief moment, I felt I was about to die but when my eyes opened, I was alive. I unbuckled myself from the seat and exited from an opening," he said. "In front of my eyes, airhostesses and aunties and uncles had perished."

He said he felt that the plane had stalled immediately after take-off. "Green and white lights were on. It looked like they were giving 'race' to the plane to give more thrust and the plane crashed into a building."


The 45-year-old man was seated in seat 11A on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Seat 11A is one of six seats in the first row of the economy class on Air India's B787-8 aircraft. It is a window seat near an emergency exit and adjacent to the aircraft's galley, according to the seat map. Ramesh said he could walk out from the wreckage as his side of the aircraft did not hit the hostel.

"It landed on the ground. There was some space on my side. When the door broke open, I could find space and escape. I could not believe that I was alive. My left hand got burnt in the fire, but I walked out of the crash site. I received good treatment here," he said.