The sole survivor of the Air India flight that crashed in western India with 242 people on board this Thursday (12th) called his father moments after the disaster.
Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is currently hospitalized. He managed to escape the aircraft through the emergency exit.
"I have no idea how I got out of that plane," he said, according to one of his brothers, Nayan Kumar Ramesh.
Nayan lives in Leicester, England, just like Viswash. He told the British press that his brother had received a call from their father while already seated on the plane, and said the flight was about to take off.
However, just minutes later, the father received a video call in which Viswash reported the crash.
Seat 11A
Indian media reports say Kumar Ramesh was seated in 11A, next to an emergency exit.
“He was near the emergency exit and managed to escape by jumping through the door,” said police officer Vidhi Chaudhary in Ahmedabad. It is still unclear whether he jumped before or after the impact.
The flight was headed to London and crashed just minutes after takeoff. The aircraft struck a medical college dormitory in a residential area around lunchtime. More than 240 people died, according to police.
Viswash Kumar was born in India but holds British citizenship. In an interview from the hospital, he said he was returning to the UK with his brother after visiting family in India.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere. Someone held me, put me in an ambulance, and brought me to the hospital,” he told the Hindustan Times.