‘I simply walked out’: The only survivor of the Air India crash shares his story

The only survivor of the Air India crash that killed over 240 folks additionally would not understand how he made it out alive.

However, mendacity in a hospital mattress on Friday morning, Viswashkumar Ramesh did his greatest to elucidate.

“I can’t believe myself how I came out of it alive, because for a while I thought I was going to die as well,” Ramesh advised Indian nationwide broadcaster DD Information. “But when I opened my eyes, I saw that I was alive. So I tried to open my seat belt, and I was able to get out.”

Ramesh was one of many 242 folks on board the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which crashed within the northwestern Indian metropolis of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday.

Everybody else on board died, and authorities say casualties will seemingly additionally embody individuals who have been inside a medical school hostel that the aircraft struck.

Ramesh, whom India Air recognized as “a British national of Indian origin,” lives in London together with his spouse and little one. The 40-year-old was returning to the U.Okay. together with his brother after visiting household overseas when tragedy struck.

“After takeoff, after 5-10 seconds, it seemed like the aircraft was stuck,” he mentioned, including that inexperienced and white lights got here on contained in the aircraft earlier than it hit the constructing.

Movies from the scene recommend the aircraft was within the air for solely about half a minute earlier than descending and crashing in a blaze of fireside.

Ramesh was sitting in seat 11A — a window seat within the first exit row of normal financial system — based on a passenger listing launched by the airline. He mentioned his a part of the aircraft landed “on the ground floor” of the hostel — and he seen the emergency door was damaged by the influence.

“When my door broke, I saw there was a bit of space,” Ramesh mentioned. “So I tried to get out and I was able to get out.”

Talking to The Hindu, Ramesh clarified that he hadn’t wanted to leap out of the aircraft: “I just walked out.”

Video shared by Indian media exhibits Ramesh, in a white T-shirt smeared with what seems to be like blood and dust, limping towards an ambulance. He may be seen in interviews with a laceration on one aspect of his face and a bandage on his left hand, which he mentioned was “burnt slightly” within the hearth.

Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who handled Ramesh on the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, advised the Related Press that he was “disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” however “seems to be out of danger.”

His survival story, nonetheless, is bittersweet. His brother Ajay, sitting throughout the aisle in 11J, was among the many many killed.

Again within the U.Okay., Ramesh’s different brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, advised reporters that he video-called their dad instantly after the crash, saying he’d one way or the other survived however could not discover his brother.

“When he called us he was just more worried about my other brother, like ‘Find Ajay, find Ajay,'” Nayan advised the BBC. “That’s all he cares about at the moment.”

Ramesh was sitting in what often is not the most secure place 

Ramesh has referred to as his survival “a miracle.”

It is particularly exceptional contemplating the place he was sitting: towards the entrance of the plane. The prevailing knowledge has lengthy been that the most secure a part of the aircraft is the again.

“Typically in an airplane accident, being in the back of the airplane is better because you sort of have the front of the airplane as a shock absorber to take some of the impact loads,” explains John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

However on this case, which Hansman describes as a “landing accident,” the touchdown gear and tail have been seemingly the primary a part of the aircraft to hit the bottom, based mostly on movies displaying the aircraft’s descent.

“Because the tail hit first it would have then caused the whole fuselage to rotate forward and slam into the ground, and that would cause breaking of the fuselage,” Hansman mentioned. “If he said he went through a break, that was what caused that break.”

Importantly, Hansman mentioned, it was that opening, and Ramesh’s fast considering, that allowed him to get out of the aircraft and much sufficient away earlier than he may get severely burned.

“In some cases you can survive the impact damage, but then the fire can be what actually ends up being the problem,” he provides.

Hansman says there is no one most secure seat on the aircraft — it varies based mostly on the mannequin and the kind of crash. And whereas accidents like this are extremely uncommon, he says there are greatest practices flyers ought to observe in case of any emergency — which is able to come as no shock to anybody who’s heard an airplane security briefing.

“Put your seat belt on tight, know where the exits are,” he says. “And as was shown in this case, getting out quickly is really important. So don’t wait and grab your stuff, just … get away as quickly as you can.”