British survivor of Air India plane crash gives his most shocking account of the disaster: ‘Air hostesses died before my eyes… we crashed into the building at full speed. I thought I was going to die’
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The sole survivor of yesterday’s deadly Air India plane crash has shared his shocking account of the disaster and described how he ‘jumped out’ after the jet smashed into the ground.
Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, miraculously survived the plane disaster, which killed all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on-board.
Mr Ramesh, who lives in London with his wife and child, is being treated at a hospital in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, where he told doctors that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who examined Mr Ramesh, told the Associated Press that he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body’ but that he ‘seems to be out of danger.’
Speaking to Indian broadcaster Doordarshan, Mr Ramesh recounted his horrific ordeal, and spoke of how he witnessed two air hostesses die ‘in front of my eyes’.
‘I don’t know how I came out of it alive’, he said from his hospital bed.
‘For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. And I opened my seatbelt and got out of there.’
His seat was placed right next to the emergency door, which he says came off when the plane hit the ground.
Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, miraculously survived the plane disaster. Pictured: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) meeting with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh in an Ahmedabad hospital on Friday
The plane’s sole survivor in hospital with a bloodied face and injuries after the tragic crash, which claimed the life of his younger brother
Astonishing footage showed the man walking away from the scene with some visible injuries to his face
‘The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building,’ Mr Ramesh recounted.
‘There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.’
‘The door must’ve broken on impact,’ he said.
‘There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don’t know how.’
When the plane hit the ground yesterday, seat 11A, where Mr Ramesh was sat, collapsed into the ground floor of the building, instead of the upper levels where the jet’s main body was badly destroyed.
Mr Ramesh also described how just moments after take off, it ‘felt like the plane had got stuck.’
He recalled how the pilots tried to raise the jet, but it ‘went full speed and crashed into the building’.
Mr Ramesh explained how the plane quickly caught fire following the crash, and said he burned his arm.
Astonishing footage taken near the crash site yesterday showed Mr Ramesh with visible injuries hobbling away from the jet before he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Mr Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight and is presumed dead, described yesterday how he heard a ‘a loud noise’ before the plane crashed.
‘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. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.’
India’s prime minister met the plane crash survivor on Friday, as well as those who were injured on the ground.
CCTV footage captured the moment the plane exploded into a fireball
Parts of an Air India plane that crashed on Thursday are seen on top of a building in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, June 13
Rescuers work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the site where an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed during take-off from Ahmedabad
The Indian government has launched an investigation into the fatal crash of the London-bound plane that came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad
A relative of a victim of the Air India plane crash is comforted
Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition. Pictured: Relatives of victims, who died in the plane crash
Photos show PM Narendra Modi leaning over an injured Mr Ramesh who is lying in a hospital bed as the pair have a conversation.
India’s leader was also pictured visiting the site of the crash.
‘We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words,’ Modi said on social media after his visit.
‘We understand their pain and also know that the void left behind will be felt for years to come.’
The Indian government has launched an investigation into the fatal crash of the London-bound plane that came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad.
Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.
There was no news early Friday on the cause of the crash, or on efforts to retrieve the black boxes – the flight data and cockpit voice recorders – as authorities continued to search the crash site.
Chunks of the plane’s fuselage and tail were seen protruding from a demolished building
Firefighters work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June12, 2025
The plane hit a building housing medical students and burst into flames, killing several college students on the ground.
Shocking images and videos showed how black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than five million and the capital of Gujarat.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has initiated a probe into the disaster in line with global protocols set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, said Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu in a statement on social media.
A team from the United States is expected to arrive in India to help. The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and General Electric are all sending experts.
Medics are conducting DNA tests to identify those killed, the national president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, Akshay Dongardiv, said.
Meanwhile, grieving families gathered outside the Civil hospital in Ahmedabad on Friday.
