‘It all happened so quickly’: Air India crash survivor recounts deadly incident

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Ramesh Viswashkumar, a passenger who survived the crash of Air India flight AI 171 in Ahmedabad, India on June 12. — via Hindustan Times
Ramesh Viswashkumar, a passenger who survived the crash of Air India flight AI 171 in Ahmedabad, India on June 12. — via Hindustan Times

The passenger who survived the crash of Air India flight AI 171 on Thursday recounted the incident to media outlets, stating that he heard a loud noise less than a minute after takeoff.

Over 200 people were killed when the Boeing 787-8 aircraft, bound for London with 242 people on board, crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, authorities said, in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

The survivor was identified as 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar, who, according to his boarding pass, a picture of which is being circulated on social media, was in seat 11A of the aircraft.

“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” Viswashkumar told The Hindustan Times from his hospital bed. “It all happened so quickly.

“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,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”

He said that his brother Ajay was seated in a different row on the plane. “He was travelling with me and I can’t find him anymore. Please help me find him,” he said.

A video shared by Indian news outlet India Today showed an injured Viswashkumar limping towards an ambulance, surrounded by onlookers.

The plane came down in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch hour. It was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital.

Ahmedabad police chief GS Malik told Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. Though he initially reported that there were no survivors, he later told the Indian news agency ANI that there was one survivor who was under treatment.

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