The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people said on Friday he was still struggling to comprehend how he made it out alive, describing scenes of horror as passengers died around him while he escaped through a shattered emergency exit.

Viswashkumar Ramesh, identified by police as having been seated in 11A near the emergency exit, managed to crawl out of the wreckage after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into flames shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. The aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel, marking India’s deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.

Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin, was seen in social media footage limping along the street in a blood-stained T-shirt, his face bruised and battered. That video has since been broadcast widely across Indian news channels.

“I don’t believe how I survived. For some time, I thought I was also going to die,” Ramesh told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed. “But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive, and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others [died].”

According to his family, Ramesh had been travelling with his brother, Ajay, who was seated in a different row.

He explained that the side of the plane where he was seated had struck the ground, creating a gap to the outside. “I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke, I tried to escape through it and I did,” he said. “The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall, so nobody could have come out of there.”

Medical officials at Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital said Ramesh suffered burns and bruises and remains under observation. One hospital official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, described his survival as extraordinary.

“His escape… and without any grievous injury, was nothing short of a miracle. He also realises that and is a bit shaken by the trauma of it too,” the official said.

British media have dubbed his story the “miracle of seat 11A.”

Faridah Abdulkadiri

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