Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the sole survivor of the Air India Flight 171 tragedy, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, on Friday at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital.
Ramesh, who is a British citizen of Indian origin, is recovering from injuries he suffered during the gruesome crash that killed 241 passengers and crew, including his own brother.
Recounting the terrifying experience to the Prime Minister, Ramesh said, “My brother was seated in a different row and didn’t survive. I still don’t know how I made it out alive.”
For a moment, I believed I was going to perish. All of it occurred in front of my eyes — the sound, the collision, the blaze. I somehow managed to find some sort of small space to get away from it," he recollected, recalling the confusing moments after the crash.
Ramesh clarified that the plane appeared to stall shortly after take-off before nose-diving and crashing into a building. "I was on the other side of where the plane crashed. That saved me," he added.
Video of the accident site had previously captured Ramesh, injured and bleeding, leaving no doubt that the driver suffered a terrible fate at his own hands. He is currently receiving medical attention and is said to be in stable condition.
Prime Minister Modi also visited other injured people, including a number of young students at BJ Medical College, who were within the hostel building hit by the plane. Some of them were in the canteen for lunch when the plane crashed, and there was hardly time to respond.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was flying to London when it crashed just minutes after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The plane exploded into the hostel in the heavily populated Meghaninagar area, just three kilometers from the runway, at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Rescue efforts are still in full gear as rescue crews keep on recovering the dead and digging through the wreckage. Authorities have already started the challenging work of identifying victims and returning them to their families, while investigators continue to figure out the precise cause of one of India's worst air disasters in recent times.
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