In a scene straight out of a disaster film, the sole survivor of the devastating Air India flight AI171 crash in Ahmedabad has stunned the nation, not just by surviving, but by walking out of the burning wreckage with his phone still clutched in his hand.
The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed mere moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s runway 23 on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, including former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, two pilots, and 10 crew members.
But against all odds, 45-year-old Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, seated in 11A, emerged alive, dazed, injured, and miraculously mobile.
A newly surfaced video shows Ramesh stumbling out of the twisted, smoke-filled ruins in a white T-shirt, thick plumes of black smoke swirling behind him. In his left hand? His smartphone, somehow untouched — a surreal image of survival amid total devastation.
Moments later, another clip captured him walking toward an ambulance, clearly in pain but conscious enough to inform bystanders: “I was on the flight that crashed.”
Ramesh’s seat — 11A — is in the first row of economy class, located just beside an emergency exit. That detail, combined with an improbable stroke of fate, saved his life.
“When the aircraft crashed, my side didn’t hit the building. There was some space below,” he told DD News. Suddenly, the emergency door broke open. I saw a way out and I ran. I still don’t know how I’m alive.”
Ramesh suffered burn injuries on his left hand, but his ability to escape was nothing short of extraordinary. As he recalls, the seconds before impact were filled with terror: “Just a minute after takeoff,
it felt like the plane was stuck. The lights turned green and white, and I think the pilots tried to lift it, but it nosedived and hit the building.”
That building — a residential structure near the airport — took the brunt of the impact. Ramesh’s section of the aircraft, however, remained partially intact long enough for him to flee.
“I thought I was going to die. People around me — an aunt, uncle, even an air hostess — died right in front of my eyes. But somehow I opened my eyes, unbuckled my seatbelt, and ran.”
Investigators now point to a sudden loss of thrust, with the aircraft descending rapidly at -475 feet per minute before the crash. While the flight’s final moments were filled with chaos, Ramesh’s escape stands as an almost impossible triumph of sheer instinct and luck.
In a tragedy that has claimed so many lives, his survival feels like a ghostly exception — a reminder that even in the darkest moments, fate sometimes leaves one thread unbroken.