Air India Flight 171: Sole survivor 'thrown out of plane before explosion'

The sole survivor of Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad, western India, has told doctors he was thrown clear of the aircraft before it erupted in flames.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, from Leicester, in central England, was in seat 11A of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday, killing 241 people on board plus a number of people on the ground.

Mr Ramesh’s older brother Ajay was also aboard Air India Flight 171 to London Gatwick Airport and died in what is the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. Most of the passengers were Indian or British.

The plane landed on a doctors’ hostel in the densely populated city and turned into a fireball after splitting apart. Debris was spread across the streets and the plane’s tail came to rest on top of the BJ Medical College building. Local media has put the death toll on the ground as high as 24, but this has not been confirmed.

Air India has said the investigation would take time. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has said a team of experts is ready to go to India to help in the probe.

Aviation experts have speculated about a number of possible causes for the crash, from both engines failing – possibly due to a bird strike, as happened in the “Miracle on the Hudson” crash in New York in 2009 – to the flaps on the aircraft’s wings not being set to the correct position for take-off.

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Wreckage

The cause of the crash, in which the fully fuelled aircraft tore into buildings and exploded into flames, remains unknown. Salvage crews are still sifting through the wreckage to find possible survivors on the ground, alongside technical data like the voice and data recorders that are crucial to piece together the final moments of the doomed flight.

One of two black boxes from the plane had been found, reported the Hindustan Times.

The twin-engined aircraft had reached an altitude of 190 metres and a speed of about 320kph when it crashed, according to data from Flightradar24.

Its pilots issued a mayday call to air traffic controllers immediately after take-off, said India’s civil aviation regulator. The aircraft was in the command of captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

Mr Ramesh was visited on Friday by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a local government hospital.

The bloodied and burnt passenger had been seen walking near the crash site, surrounded by an incredulous crowd, in the minutes after Flight 171 came down. A video of the moment was widely shared on social media.

His injuries were not life-threatening and he may be able to offer valuable clues as to what caused the accident.

When the flight took off, "within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air" before the lights started flickering green and white, Mr Ramesh told the Hindustan Times.

“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,” he told reporters. “There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere.”

Dr Dhaval Gameti, who examined him, said: “He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body. But he seems to be out of danger.”

Another medic said Mr Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, ejecting him, before there was a loud explosion.

Seat 11A is the left window seat in the first row of economy class, which is positioned right behind an emergency exit. An Air India 787 Dreamliner typically seats 256 passengers in a two-class configuration, with 18 seats in business and 238 seats in economy.

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Speaking outside the family home in Leicester, the survivor's brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, said: “We were just shocked as soon as we heard it.

“I last spoke to him yesterday morning. We’re devastated, just devastated. He said, ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane.’”

Another of Mr Ramesh’s relatives, Jay, said the survivor spoke to his father after the crash and asked after his brother, saying: ‘Where’s Ajay’?”

Mr Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday.

“The scene of devastation is saddening,” he said in a post on X.

Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson also arrived in Ahmedabad in the early hours of Friday.

Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior state police officer, said on Thursday the death toll was more than 240, revising down a previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been double counted.

The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the largest city.

“Almost 70 per cent of the passengers were found in their seats, most of them had their seat belts on,” a first responder told local newspaper Indian Express.

Shares

While Air India is not publicly traded, shares of rival airline IndiGo parent Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet were both down 4 per cent in early Friday trade.

Boeing's shares fell 5 per cent on Thursday following the crash.

It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.

The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara – a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024.

The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's third-largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm.

In an unrelated incident, an Air India flight from the Thai island of Phuket headed to Delhi made an emergency landing on Friday after a bomb threat was received on board, Phuket's airport said.

Victims

Tributes have been paid in the UK to many of the victims of Thursday’s crash. The Gloucester Muslim Community group offered “sincere and deepest condolences” after Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their daughter Sara were reported to be among the victims.

“During this moment of overwhelming sorrow, our hearts go out to all those left behind,” a statement said.

“No words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss, but we pray that the family may find solace in the tremendous outpouring of compassion and solidarity from communities across the world.”

Air India has set up friends and relatives assistance centres at Gatwick, Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad airports to provide support in the wake of AI171’s crash.

“These centres are facilitating the travel of family members to Ahmedabad,” the airline said in a post on X.

UK officials are being deployed to India to support the investigation, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed US teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were also headed to India with support from Boeing and GE Aerospace.