The sole survivor of the deadly Air India plane crash disaster was saved after he was ‘ejected’ from the jet before it hit the ground and exploded into a huge fireball.
Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, miraculously survived the plane disaster, which killed all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on-board.
Mr Ramesh, who lives in London with his wife and child, is being treated at a hospital in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, where he told doctors that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, ejecting him before there was a loud explosion.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who also examined Mr Ramesh, told the Associated Press that he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body’ but that he ‘seems to be out of danger.’
Astonishing footage taken near the crash site yesterday showed Mr Ramesh with visible injuries hobbling away from the jet before he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Speaking to local media from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said that his brother had been sitting on another row adding ‘I can’t find him anymore’.
‘Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,’ he 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.’
India’s prime minister met the plane crash survivor on Friday, as well as those who were injured on the ground.
Photos show PM Narendra Modi leaning over an injured Mr Ramesh who is lying in a hospital bed as the pair have a conversation.
India’s leader was also pictured visiting the site of the crash.
‘We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words,’ Modi said on social media after his visit.
‘We understand their pain and also know that the void left behind will be felt for years to come.’
The Indian government has launched an investigation into the fatal crash of the London-bound plane that came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad.
Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.
There was no news early Friday on the cause of the crash, or on efforts to retrieve the black boxes – the flight data and cockpit voice recorders – as authorities continued to search the crash site.
The plane hit a building housing medical students and burst into flames, killing several college students on the ground.
Shocking images and videos showed how black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than five million and the capital of Gujarat.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has initiated a probe into the disaster in line with global protocols set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, said Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu in a statement on social media.
A team from the United States is expected to arrive in India to help. The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and General Electric are all sending experts.
Medics are conducting DNA tests to identify those killed, the national president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, Akshay Dongardiv, said.
Meanwhile, grieving families gathered outside the Civil hospital in Ahmedabad on Friday.