Earlier this year, an Air India flight crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad in June, claiming 241 lives. The world watched in disbelief as one man walked out of the burning wreckage alive. That man, Viswashkumar Ramesh, now calls himself the “luckiest man alive.”
Ramesh has now returned to Leicester, UK, the place he calls home, and has opened up about how life has been since the crash. Speaking to PA Media, Ramesh, who also lost his brother in the tragedy, described the days that followed as ones filled with “grief, sleepless nights, and an overwhelming silence.”
Air India crash sole survivor calls himself ‘luckiest man alive’
39-year-old Ramesh was among the passengers on the London-bound Air India flight AI171 when it crashed in Ahmedabad. Among those killed were 169 Indian nationals, 52 Britons, and 19 others on the ground.
But Ramesh somehow managed to escape, and videos that surfaced online showed him walking away as smoke billowed behind him. Speaking to BBC News, Ramesh said, “I’m the only survivor. Still, I can’t believe it. It’s a miracle. I lost my brother as well. My brother was my backbone. For the last few years, he always supported me.” His younger brother, Ajay, had been sitting only a few seats away and did not survive the crash.
Since returning home, Ramesh said he barely speaks to anyone now, not even his wife or their four-year-old son. “Now I’m alone,” he said. “I just sit in my room alone, not talking with my wife, my son. I just like to be alone in my house.” According to his advisers, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has struggled to come to terms with both his survival and his brother’s death.
During the interview, when asked what happened inside the aircraft, he said, “I can’t say anything about that now.” During earlier interviews in India, he had shared how he managed to unbuckle himself and crawl out of the wreckage.
‘Every day is painful for the whole family’
Ramesh still experiences pain in his leg, knee, back, and shoulder, and struggles to walk without help and has been unable to return to work or drive. His family’s fishing business in Diu, which he ran with his late brother, has collapsed since the tragedy.
Ramesh broke down several times during the interview. “For me, after this accident… very difficult,” he said. “Physically, mentally, also my family as well, mentally. My mum last four months, she is sitting every day outside the door, not talking, nothing. I can’t talk about much. I’m thinking all night. I’m suffering mentally. Every day is painful for the whole family.”
Air India has offered an interim compensation of £21,500, which Ramesh accepted. But his advisers say it’s far from enough to meet his immediate needs. According to Mr Seiger, the family’s spokesman, they invited Air India executives for a meeting three times, all of which were either “ignored or turned down.” The media interviews, he said, were their way of making that request again.
“It’s appalling that we are having to sit here today and putting him [Viswashkumar] through this,” Mr Seiger said. “The people who should be sitting here are the executives of Air India — the people responsible for trying to put things right. Please come and sit down with us so that we can work through this together to try and alleviate some of this suffering.” The airline responded to the claims, saying it offered to arrange a meeting with Mr Ramesh’s representatives.
