A sole survivor in the deadly plane crash of Air India Flight 171 to London Gatwick has spoken out from the hospital, recalling the horrific details of the crash, saying, "It all happened so quickly."
Senior police officer Vidhi Chaudhary told Reuters that the survivor is British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. Ramesh is listed as the passenger seated in 11A on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed on Thursday in a neighborhood minutes after the plane took off from Ahmedabad, killing more than 240 people on board.
"When I got up, there were bodies all around me," Ramesh told local media from his hospital bed. "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," he added. "Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise, and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly."
Video later surfaced showing Ramesh walking through the neighborhood and away from the crash. He can be seen with blood on his shirt and head.
Family members have confirmed that Ramesh was on the plane and did survive, after they spoke to him on the phone from the hospital, per SkyNews. However, they have yet to have contact with his brother, who reportedly was also on the plane.
"I don't know how I am alive," he told members of his family.
Initial reports from the crash were that everyone on board the plane had died, per local police. Later, authorities said that 204 bodies had been recovered so far.
Several videos have since surfaced on X showing the plane in the air, the fiery crash, and the aftermath. "This is the first 787 to crash since its first flight in 2009," RedState reported.
RedState's Bonchie wrote about the crash and assessed what might have led to the tragedy.
He wrote that:
The first thing I noticed was the absence of takeoff flaps as they lifted off. That would also mean the slats on the front of the wing weren't out. If we're speculating on a cause, that seems to be the best guess right now. Can you take off without flaps, even in a 787? Theoretically, with enough airspeed and runway, you could, but given the point at which they left the runway, they were probably flying speeds that assumed the flaps were out.
You can see the plane stalling during the immediate climb out, and the pilots continue to pull back until it impacts the ground. That would technically be the wrong reaction, as you should lower the nose in a stall, but it probably wouldn't have changed anything, considering the lack of altitude. We'll have to wait for further investigation to find out if the flaps were left up due to pilot error or if some kind of mechanical failure occurred.
This is a developing story. If more survivors are located, we will report on that and let you know. Stay tuned.
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