In an apocalyptic scenario, amidst the chaos of charred bodies entering the Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad, a man with several cuts and burns on his face, chest, and feet lay on a bed in the intensive care unit. Suddenly, journalists from Hindustan Times, an Indian newspaper edited in English, approached him and asked if he was one of the passengers of the crashed plane. "My name is Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, I am 40 years old and I was in seat 11A", he replied.
Ramesh had his boarding pass in a pocket. Indian authorities had just reported that at that moment, only one survivor had been found from the tragic plane accident at Ahmedabad airport. On board there were 242 people. Hours later, it was confirmed that 241 had died.
"Thirty seconds after takeoff, a loud noise was heard, and the plane crashed. Everything happened very quickly," Ramesh recounted in statements collected by Hindustan Times that quickly went viral worldwide. "When I got up, there were bodies around me. I was very scared. I got up and ran. There were plane debris everywhere. Someone grabbed me, put me in an ambulance, and took me to the hospital."
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, along with 12 crew members, was engulfed in a huge fireball after crashing in a residential area minutes after taking off at 13:38 local time on Thursday.
The aircraft, flying at a very low altitude, at 250 meters , crashed into the residence of a medical faculty located very close to the airport. It destroyed the dining hall of the residence, just at lunchtime, causing the death of several students. Local media showed images of a part of the plane lodged on the rooftop of the building.
The survivor, a British businessman who has been living in London since 2023, also mentioned that his brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh (45 years old), was on the plane. "He was in the first row. Please help me find him," he pleaded from his bed. "He is disoriented, with multiple injuries all over his body. But he seems to be out of danger," reassured the doctor who attended to Ramesh.
He was in row 11, the first row in the economy class located just behind an emergency exit, occupying the window seat on the left. After his identity was revealed, several British media outlets sought out his family and friends in the UK.
Ramesh has a wife and a four-year-old son. "Ramesh has no idea how he escaped," explained his younger brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, to the BBC. "We were shocked when we found out. The last time I spoke to him was yesterday morning. We are devastated," he continued.
According to the air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the plane issued a "Mayday" call, indicating an emergency, but there was no response from the pilot afterward. The accident site is approximately 1.7 kilometers from the airport. This has been the first accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, unlike the 737 Max, which has caused many headaches for Boeing (it had two accidents shortly after entering service).
The cause of the accident is still unknown. "The Boeing 787 Dreamliner seemed to not achieve enough thrust as it struggled almost the entire length of a 3,352-meter runway, a distance that should have been more than enough for takeoff. This could be due to incorrect aircraft configuration before takeoff or erroneous weight data entered into the aircraft's computer system, which determines the power needed for takeoff," said Bob Mann, head of the aviation consultancy RW Mann & Co., in an interview with Bloomberg.
"The 787 landing gear never retracted, which normally occurs just after takeoff," noted Jeff Guzzetti, former head of accident investigation at the US Federal Aviation Administration. Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board will travel to India to assist with the investigation of the accident.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the accident site on Friday, and rescue teams and investigators continued to sift through the debris. Local media reported that one of the two black boxes of the plane has been found, the aircraft's electronic data recorder usually located in the rear, which can help investigators decipher the causes of the accident.
At Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, relatives have gathered to provide DNA samples as the identification work of the deceased continues. Among the victims is Vijay Rupani, former Chief Minister of Gujarat, the state of which Ahmedabad is the capital.