For many, he is the “luckiest man alive.” For 40-year-old Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, the only survivor of the Air India flight AI-171 crash that killed 241 people on board and 19 on the ground, survival has been both a miracle and a curse.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner went down seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12, slamming into a hostel building of BJ Medical College. Among the 241 on board, only Ramesh, seated in 11A, close to an emergency exit, walked away alive. His younger brother Ajay, seated a few seats away, died in the crash.
“I’m the only one survivor. Still, I’m not believing. It’s a miracle,” Ramesh, an Indian-origin British national, told the BBC. “I lost my brother as well. My brother is my backbone. The last few years, he was always supporting me.”
According to preliminary reports by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the fuel supply to both engines was cut off just seconds after take-off, which led to loss of power.
Eyewitnesses reported a loud boom and a fireball as the Dreamliner plunged into the hostel’s southern wing. Videos from the scene showed Ramesh walking away from the wreckage, dazed and covered in soot, as smoke billowed into the sky.
From his hospital bed in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where he was under 24-hour monitoring, Ramesh received a visit from Prime Minister Narendra Modi the following day. “I told him I don’t know how I lived. It all happened so fast,” Ramesh said at the time. He was discharged on June 17, the same day his brother’s remains were handed over to the family after DNA confirmation.
Back home in Leicester, Ramesh says he is haunted by the memories of that day. “Now I’m alone. I just sit in my room alone, not talking with my wife, my son. I just like to be alone in my house,” he told the BBC.
“Physically, mentally, also my family as well, mentally…my mum last four months, she is sitting every day outside the door, not talking, nothing. I’m not talking to anyone else. I can’t talk about much. I’m thinking all night, I’m suffering mentally. Every day is painful for the whole family.”
His advisers confirmed that he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and struggles with both physical pain and psychological trauma. “When I walk, not walk properly, slowly, slowly, my wife helps,” he said. His cousin said earlier that he wakes up in the middle of the night. “We took him to a psychiatrist,” the cousin said.
Air India, now owned by the Tata Group, has offered an interim compensation of 21,500 UK pounds (Rs 22 lakh), which Ramesh accepted. His advisers insist it is woefully inadequate.