How 1 man survived Air India flight AI171 crash that killed 241: ‘I got up and ran’
‘There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran,’ said UK citizen Ramesh Vishwaskumar, who lost his brother in the crash
As Air India Flight AI171 descended towards its doom on Thursday, Ramesh Vishwaskumar sat in the first row of economy class - headed for some of the most harrowing and luckiest moments of his life.
After the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a densely populated district of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Vishwaskumar managed to get out of the plane. He was injured, but alive. All 241 others on board had perished.
A video that has since gone viral on social media shows a slightly bloodied man walking near the crash site, surrounded by an incredulous crowd.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,” Vishwaskumar told local reporters, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper.
“There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere.” Media outlets identified him as a UK citizen aged 40, from the city of Leicester.
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‘I don’t know how I’m alive’: sole survivor found in Air India flight that killed 241
It is a tale of survival that stands out in an aircraft accident that ranks as the worst disaster in civil aviation in more than a decade. The cause of the crash, which killed scores more on the ground as the fully fuelled aircraft tore into buildings and exploded into flames, remains unknown.