Amid the fiery wreckage of the Air India crash that devastated Ahmedabad on Thursday, one man emerged from the inferno—bruised, shaken, and alive. Ramesh Vishwaskumar, a British citizen seated on 11A, miraculously survived a tragedy that 241 other people on board could not.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,” he told local reporters, all of whom had milled around him with deep disbelief. “There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere.”
His chest, eyes, and feet bore “impact injuries,” but he lived to tell the tale. In the viral video now making rounds on social media, Ramesh can be seen limping away from the wreckage, clothes torn, blood streaking down his face—an image etched with trauma and raw survival.
Originally from India, Ramesh has lived in London for the past 20 years with his wife and child. His return trip was supposed to be a brief family reunion; instead, it turned into a brush with death.
But the trauma didn’t end with survival. His brother Ajay Vishwaskumar, who was also on the same flight, is currently 'missing'. Two of Ramesh’s friends have rushed to Ahmedabad from Diu, hoping for another miracle and fearing the worst. “We don’t know anything yet,” a neighbour told reporters. “It’s chaos. They’re just trying to find him.”
Ramesh was rushed to a hospital by ambulance soon after escaping the wreckage. Doctors have termed his injuries non-life-threatening, but the emotional toll is anything but minor.