A doctor treating the sole survivor of Thursday's Air India plane crash said he is recovering well after walking away from the deadly disaster with only bruises and burns.
British citizen Vishwashkumar Ramesh is believed to have been thrown clear of the aircraft before it was engulfed in flames in Ahmedabad, western India.
But he has told doctors he still cannot understand how he emerged from the scene of devastation.
He was the only one of 242 passengers – which included his older brother Ajay – to survive when the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off.
Dr Rajnish Patel, head of surgery at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, told The National that Mr Ramesh is in a stable condition and will be kept under observation for a few days.
He spoke of the mental trauma facing the patient, as he grapples with the loss of his brother and the enormity of the ordeal he came through.
“He is recovering well. He has some bruises on the left side of his face and burns on the left shoulder but otherwise he is stable,” said Dr Patel. “He was limping but he has no bone injuries.”
Mr Ramesh, from Leicester, central England, was seated in 11A near the emergency exit of the aircraft, according to information pieced together by medics, police and volunteers who helped get him to safety.
Post-traumatic amnesia
He told doctors he still had his seat belt on and appears to have been thrown out of the Air India plane bound for London’s Gatwick Airport.
“He said at one point he was in his seat, the second moment the plane fell, then he was unconscious and when he recovered he was outside,” Dr Patel said.
“He does not have a clear idea of how he got out. But he does remember he was still in his seat and that when the plane crashed he was outside the plane in his seat with the seat belt still on.
“He said he took out the seat belt and walked away. He walked a very short distance and then there was a blast.”
The doctor said it was natural for patients battling trauma to blank terrifying memories.
“He said he was surrounded by dead bodies,” Dr Patel said. “It’s a case of severe post-traumatic amnesia so his story may change. This is common for people who have suffered such a massive trauma. After some time he may recollect everything.”
Mr Ramesh and his brother Ajay were travelling home to their family in Leicester.
“He does know that his brother who was seated behind did not survive, he knows he is the only survivor,” Dr Patel said.
“We tell him, ‘you are stable, it’s a miracle, you are lucky’ and he accepts this. But yes, this will leave a deep impact.”
Mr Ramesh will be discharged in a few days, after he is cleared by doctors and legal formalities are completed.
His family in Gujarat arrived at the hospital soon after the news broke.
Investigation begins
Mobile phone footage taken by witnesses at the accident site shows Mr Ramesh walking unsteadily as people ask him about other passengers. He replies in Hindi: “They are all inside.”
Mr Ramesh has described the devastating scene to Indian media.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,” he told The Hindustan Times newspaper.
Doctors at the hospital also treated medical students from the state-run BJ Medical College hostel that the plane crashed into.
Video footage showed the plane taxiing off the runway, gaining height before quickly dropping, flying low and then hitting the ground in a residential neighbourhood before bursting into flames.
Air India said of the 242 people on board Flight 171, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew, there were 169 passengers from India, 53 from Britain, seven from Portugal and one from Canada.
Air India owner Tata Sons said “no words can adequately express the grief”. It has pledged to pay one crore rupees ($133,600) to the family of each person who died.
Boeing has said it is ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the probe would be in line with international protocols set up by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Players Selected for La Liga Trials
U18 Age Group
Name: Ahmed Salam (Malaga)
Position: Right Wing
Nationality: Jordanian
Name: Yahia Iraqi (Malaga)
Position: Left Wing
Nationality: Morocco
Name: Mohammed Bouherrafa (Almeria)
Position: Centre-Midfield
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Name: Mohammed Rajeh (Cadiz)
Position: Striker
Nationality: Jordanian
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Position: Lead Striker
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Two-step truce
The UN-brokered ceasefire deal for Hodeidah will be implemented in two stages, with the first to be completed before the New Year begins, according to the Arab Coalition supporting the Yemeni government.
By midnight on December 31, the Houthi rebels will have to withdraw from the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Issa and Al Saqef, coalition officials told The National.
The second stage will be the complete withdrawal of all pro-government forces and rebels from Hodeidah city, to be completed by midnight on January 7.
The process is to be overseen by a Redeployment Co-ordination Committee (RCC) comprising UN monitors and representatives of the government and the rebels.
The agreement also calls the deployment of UN-supervised neutral forces in the city and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to ensure distribution of aid across the country.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
The biog
Born: near Sialkot, Pakistan, 1981
Profession: Driver
Family: wife, son (11), daughter (8)
Favourite drink: chai karak
Favourite place in Dubai: The neighbourhood of Khawaneej. “When I see the old houses over there, near the date palms, I can be reminded of my old times. If I don’t go down I cannot recall my old times.”
Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m; Winner: Gurm, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Al Nafece, Al Muatasm Al Balushi, Mohammed Ramadan
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Adrie de Vries, Ibrahim Aseel
6.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Ottoman, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7pm: Liwa Oasis – Group 2 (PA) 300,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Hakeemat Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Ganbaru, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
