Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 38, who sustained multiple injuries, a doctor said, was the only passenger out of 242 people on board the plane to walk away.

By Jacob Judah

Jacob Judah reported from Leicester, England, where the survivor and his family live.

Published June 12, 2025

Updated June 13, 2025, 12:25 a.m. ET

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The only passenger known to have survived the crash of Air India Flight 171 called his family in Britain moments after he emerged from the wreckage on Thursday and said he was at a loss to explain his luck.

“I don’t know how I am alive,” the passenger, Viswash Kumar Ramesh, said, according to his younger brother, Nayan Ramesh, 27.

Viswash, 38, was flying back to London from Ahmedabad, India, when the plane crashed moments after taking off, killing the 241 other people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. One of them was his brother Ajay.

The Ramesh family home in Leicester, England, was a scene of mourning and stunned amazement.

Outside the house, two dozen men milled about, one a dazed-looking Nayan. The door to the house was open, and inside an older woman could be seen crying and being comforted.

In India, a doctor who said he had examined Viswash, Dhaval Gameti, told The Associated Press that the former Air India passenger was “disoriented, with multiple injuries all over his body, but he seems to be out of danger.”

Later, Nayan said that the family had spoken with his brother from the hospital. “They have told him to be on bed rest, and they have switched off his phone,” he said.

Shortly after the plane crashed, Viswash, who had been on vacation, Nayan said, managed to make a video call to his father from next to the wreckage.

“Our plane crashed,” he said, according to Nayan. “I have no idea how I got outside.”

He had to couple the extraordinarily good news with the extraordinary bad.

“He was like: ‘I can’t see my brother. I can’t see any other passengers,’” Nayan said. “He was just in shock.”

Then he was hustled into an ambulance.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5737141&forum_id=2#49011216)