AHMEDABAD: As smoke still rose from the twisted wreckage of Air India flight AI-171 in the city’s Meghaninagar neighbourhood, a miraculous story of survival began to surface. Viswashkumar Ramesh, who boarded the plane with 241 others, was the only one to make it out alive.
Now lying in a hospital bed at Civil Hospital, his voice trembles as he revisits those horrific moments, each memory etched in fire and fear.
Originally from Diu and settled in the UK for over two decades, Viswashkumar had returned to Gujarat six months ago with his brother Ajay, who was also on the plane with him on Thursday.
Today, he finds himself alone, physically scarred, emotionally shaken, and spiritually stunned by the sheer randomness of his survival.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes… I can’t believe I’m alive,” Viswashkumar told DD News, his eyes welling up.
“For a moment, I was certain I was going to die.”
It was supposed to be a routine flight for the AI-171, bound for London. But within moments of takeoff, chaos erupted.
As Viswashkumar described, the aircraft hesitated in the air for a few agonising seconds. Then, flashing green and white lights flickered across the cabin — a chilling prelude to disaster. Seconds later, the plane veered off and slammed into the hostel building below.
“The impact was deafening,” he said.
“I felt it race uncontrollably and then crash into the building. Flames engulfed the cabin. I saw the air hostess and other passengers burn right in front of me,” he added.
Viswashkumar was seated in a portion of the aircraft that, by sheer fate, broke away and landed near an open ground on the other side of the hostel. And that separation saved his life.
“When I came to my senses, I realised I could move. I unbuckled my seatbelt, looked up, and saw the door broken. I got up and walked out through the gap. Had I been on the other side, where the wall stood, I wouldn’t have made it. No one could have,” he said.
His left hand bore burn marks, and he was in shock.
Yet somehow, he walked out of the inferno, barefoot and dazed, a lone figure amid the debris of death. Emergency services rushed him to Civil Hospital, where he is now recovering under constant care.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Viswashkumar at the hospital, offering words of comfort.
“He (Modi) asked me how I was feeling and enquired about what had happened,” he said, his voice quiet but steady.
Back in London, his family was struck by both relief and grief.
His brother Nayanbhai, speaking from the UK to local media, confirmed that the family is on their way to India. “We spoke to Vishwas. He’s recovering. But we have no word about our other brother, Ajay,” he said, his voice choking with emotion.
Viswashkumar has lived in London with his wife and child for over 20 years, working in construction. What was meant to be a heartfelt homecoming has turned into a horrifying chapter of unimaginable loss.
And yet, amid the wreckage, his survival stands as a fragile but powerful testament to fate, and to the thin line that separates life from death.