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In what is being hailed as the “miracle of seat 11A,” 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar has emerged as the sole survivor of the devastating Air India crash that claimed 241 lives shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad on Thursday.
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The British national of Indian origin was on board flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route to London Gatwick, when the aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel within moments of liftoff. The impact ignited a massive fire that gutted the fuselage and surrounding buildings.
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From his hospital bed in Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital, a visibly shaken Viswashkumar recounted the final moments before impact and his desperate escape.
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“I don’t believe how I survived. For some time, I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others died,” he told India’s state broadcaster, DD News.
Viswashkumar had been seated in 11A, near an emergency exit, an apparent factor in his survival. According to officials, the aircraft came to rest in such a way that the fuselage split near its section, revealing a narrow opening. The opposite side was completely crushed against the hostel building.
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“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft. So when my door broke, I tried to escape through it, and I did,” he recalled.
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Footage of Viswashkumar, limping, bloodied, and dazed, wandering the streets outside the crash site has gone viral, a haunting visual of survival amid catastrophe.
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A video of British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, believed to be the lone survivor of Air India flight 171, walking from the crash site and getting into an ambulance that took him to the hospital for medical care. May god bless him and aid in his long road of recovery. pic.twitter.com/nLNk8UIRjo
— SonnyBoy (@gotrice2024) June 12, 2025
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Medical personnel treating him described his condition as stable, with no life-threatening injuries.
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“His escape… and without any grievous injury, was nothing short of a miracle. He also realises that and is a bit shaken by the trauma of it too,” a hospital official told Reuters.
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