‘LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE’: AIR INDIA CRASH SOLE SURVIVOR BREAKS SILENCE ON PTSD AND LOSS OF BROTHER

By Ogungbayi Beedee Adeyemi November 3, 2025
adeyemi@ddnewsonline.com

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the catastrophic Air India Flight 171 crash that killed 241 people in June, has described his survival as “a miracle” while revealing the devastating toll of PTSD, isolation, and the death of his younger brother.

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“I am the luckiest man alive,” Ramesh, 40, told Sky News in an emotional hospital-bed interview aired Sunday. “But I lost everything.”

The British-Indian passenger was seated in 11A beside an emergency exit when the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plummeted seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad on June 12, slamming into a medical college hostel and erupting in flames. All 241 others on board perished, along with at least 18 on the ground.

Ramesh escaped through a ruptured fuselage amid screams and smoke, his body bloodied and broken. Video showed him stumbling from the wreckage as firefighters battled the inferno behind him.

“I saw people burning… crew members dying in front of me,” he recalled. “I tried to go back in to find my brother, but they wouldn’t let me.”

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His brother, Ajaykumar Ramesh, 38, was seated just rows away. Days later, still bandaged and in shock, Vishwash carried Ajay’s coffin at a traditional cremation in western India.

Now five months on, Ramesh remains in India, separated from his wife and young son who returned to the UK in September. Nightmares plague him nightly.

“I dream I’m on the flight again,” he said. “I see everyone die. I wake up screaming.”

Doctors have diagnosed severe PTSD. His family’s fishing business in Diu has collapsed without him and Ajay, leaving relatives in the UK and India without income.

Air India provided interim compensation of £21,500, but Ramesh’s legal team calls it “grossly inadequate.” They have demanded a meeting with airline executives and appealed to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for support.

A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found the crash was caused by an inadvertent cutoff of fuel to both engines shortly after takeoff. Cockpit recordings revealed pilot error amid rising tension.
Investigations involving Boeing, UK, and US authorities continue.

As families of victims prepare lawsuits, Ramesh’s survival attributed to a rare “survivability pocket” has become a symbol of both miracle and mourning.
“I survived,” he said, voice breaking. “But I don’t feel alive.”

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