“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” one 40-year-old survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, told The Hindustan Times (HT), adding that he sustained “impact injuries” on his chest, eyes, and feet.
Vishwash, a British national, as reported by HT, had been in India for a short visit to see his family and was returning to the UK with his brother, 45-year-old Ajay Kumar Ramesh.
The London Gatwick-bound Air India flight — a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — took off at 1:39 pm on Thursday with 242 people on board, including crew. Within minutes, it crashed and burst into flames.
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told news agency ANI that the force “found one survivor in seat 11A”.
“One survivor has been found in the hospital and is under treatment. Cannot say anything about the number of deaths yet. The death toll may increase as the flight crashed in a residential area," 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,” Vishwash told HT, still holding on to his boarding pass.
He said he has lived in London for 20 years with his wife and child. His brother, who was seated in a different row, remains unaccounted for.
“We visited Diu. He was travelling with me and I can’t find him anymore. Please help me find him,” he said.
According to Air India, the flight carried 230 passengers: 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian.
ISSUE
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