Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Passenger 11A, identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, is the only person who cheated death after the Air India flight crashed into a resident doctors’ hostel just minutes after take-off. According to the Mayday call made by pilot Sumeet Sabharwal, the aircraft lost engine “thrust” and was unable to gain lift. An ambulance driver who transported Ramesh to the hospital revealed that the survivor attempted to return to the blaze, possibly to search for his brother, who was also on board.

‘Was having food when flight crashed’

Ambulance driver Satinder Singh Sandhu, who was one of the first responders at the crash site, was having lunch with his team when they noticed thick black smoke rising in the distance. 

“At first, we thought it might be a car accident or a gas cylinder blast,” he told PTI.

Sandhu added, “Soon, we learned it was a plane crash. I immediately instructed my team to bring an ambulance, rushed to the site.”

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‘Passenger 11A tried to go back in’

On reaching the crash site, Sandhu first helped a security guard with partially burnt clothes. Shortly after, he saw Ramesh walking out of the crash site. 

“We saw a man emerging from the crash site. Surprisingly, he tried to go back in. We stopped him and shifted him to the ambulance as well so he could receive medical attention.”

Ramesh, a resident of London, had travelled to Diu with his brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh. Both were returning to the UK on the ill-fated flight. Tragically, Ajay did not survive the crash.

The Gatwick-bound Air India flight, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 242 passengers, took off from Ahmedabad Airport’s runway 23 at 1:38 PM. It started descending at a speed of -475ft per minute before the crash. 

“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” Ramesh told Hindustan Times from the hospital bed where he is being treated for “impact injuries” to his chest, eyes and feet. 

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He recalled the terrifying moment and added, “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.”

Sandhu said that he had no idea at the time that Ramesh was the lone survivor, adding that he only realised it after watching the news coverage later that night.

Viral videos of Ramesh

Ramesh, who survived one of the world’s worst aviation crashes, walked out with a phone in one of his hands after the emergency exit door broke open. 

In one of the videos that surfaced online, the same evening the Air India plane crashed, he can be seen explaining to confused bystanders that a plane had crashed. The video reminded people of the popular Hindi proverb “Jako rakhe Saiyan, maar sake na koi [The one who is protected by God cannot be harmed by anyone].”

Another video, which went viral yesterday, shows him limping but otherwise composed, walking out of the crash site with his phone still in hand