Why did only one passenger survive doomed Air India crash? Expert explains theory of Brit’s miraculous survival
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Experts have explained how just one man appeared to miraculously survive the Air India crash – as the British casualty spoke from his hospital bed about the ordeal.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from Leicester, managed to stagger away from the disaster that killed more than 200 people on the London Gatwick-bound plane.
He has been describing how it felt like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was ‘stuck in the air’ and ‘came to a standstill’ rather than climbing after take off.
Investigations are being stepped up following Thursday’s disaster – and the Dreamliner’s wing flaps are coming under extra scrutiny as possibly responsible.
Experts viewing footage of the Air India Boeing 787-8 ahead of the crash have said its configuration on taking off from Ahmedabad airport in India ‘doesn’t look right’.
The Dreamliner plane was carrying 242 passengers, including 53 Britons – with none on board thought to have survived except Mr Ramesh in seat 11A.
It has also been reported that an identical Boeing 787 made four emergency landings last month – an American Airlines plane with issues linked to its wing flaps not being properly deployed.
Now analysts have been explaining how it was that Mr Ramesh happened to survive – while being the only person on board to do so.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, sole survivor of the Air India flight 171 crash, at a hospital in Ahmedabad. He says the plane’s lights flickered and it felt ‘stuck’ and unable to ascend
Air India are looking at several aspects of the crash including issues with the jet’s engine thrust, its flaps, and why its landing gear remained open, sources have said
Plane crash survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from Leicester, was sitting in seat 11A
Astonishing footage showed the man walking away from the scene with some visible injuries to his face
His escape to safety has been described by professors as ‘a lovely surprise’ amid a ‘really, really tragic event’.
He was sitting in seat 11A on the doomed flight which went down shortly after take-off from Ahmadebad airport on Thursday.
Prof Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University Bedfordshire, said: ‘The aircraft was loaded with fuel and it crashed into a heavily populated area.
‘I can only imagine that he was thrown from the wreckage, and that somehow as it crashed, what it hit managed to absorb some of the impact.
‘Looking at the scene, I would imagine that the disruption to the aircraft would have been huge.
‘If anybody could have got out, then they probably could have just gone out in a gap in the fuselage – you’d struggle to infer from this, therefore, that is the seat you must always sit in.
‘At the point that an aircraft like that hits a building and catches fire, there’s probably not too much you can do in that situation beyond being lucky about where you’re sat.’
A video posted to social media appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed
Mr Ramesh’s survival has been described as ‘miraculous’ by Prof Edwin Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich in south-east London.
He said: ‘We still don’t know enough about it, but a fully fueled aircraft crashing into a built-up area – it’s probably unlikely that we would expect to see any survivors from this.
‘This is probably an unsurvivable crash – because it’s in a built-up area, and because the damage to the fuselage of the aircraft would have been so severe. Plus, the huge post-crash fire would make it unlikely.
‘So, technically, I would have thought this was going to be a non-survivable crash. The fact that one person has survived, I think, is miraculous.’
Prof John McDermid, Lloyd’s Register chairman of safety at University of York, said Vishwash’s choice of seat was vital.
It was an over-wing seat offering greater structural strength, and right next to the emergency exit.
Prof McDermid added: ‘Also, being by an exit door means you can get out quickly, which greatly increases the chance of survival when there is a fire.’
Investigators are poring over the footage and searching for the piece of debris as they try to find out what went wrong.
The plane’s sole survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh is pictured here in hospital with a bloodied face and injuries after the tragic crash, which claimed the life of his younger brother
The moment the plane went down. Mr Ramesh has said the plane was gliding and not thrusting
Firefighters work to put out a fire at the site where an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed in Ahmedabad
The plane’s pilot had frantically warned in a mayday call that the aircraft was ‘losing power’ just moments before it crashed into a hostel.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the disaster’s sole survivor in hospital.
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, ejecting him before there was a loud explosion.
He has 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.
Debris is seen at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025
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
Civilians surround parts of the jet that seemingly smashed into a medical college canteen
‘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.
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 said: ‘I don’t know how I came out of it alive.
‘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,’ adding how two cabin crew members ‘died before my eyes.’
His seat was placed right next to the emergency door, which he says came off when the plane hit a building.
The pilot of the Air India crash frantically warned the plane was ‘losing power’ just moments before it crashed into a building, killing at least 260 people.
Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner is seen at the site where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12 2025
Search and rescue teams respond to the scene of a plane crash in Ahmedabad, India
The jet plunged into the busy suburb just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport on Thursday morning, claiming the lives of all but one passenger.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, desperately cried ‘Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift’ before the aircraft went down and hit a residential property.
Air India later confirmed that 241 of the 242 people aboard flight AI171 died in the crash.
Aviation experts have put forward two leading theories – a flock of birds being sucked into the engines, disabling them both when needed most, and a mystery over whether the aircraft’s ‘flaps’ were deployed properly.
