AHMEDABAD: As relatives of those aboard the Air India Flight desperately look for their loved ones at the Civil Hospital, Asarwa in Ahmedabad, on a bed in the general ward lies 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who said he survived the deadly crash.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” Vishwash, who received “impact injuries” on his chest, eyes and feet, said.
The Gatwick-bound Air India flight – a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – with 242 people, including crew members, took off at 1.39 pm on Thursday and crashed within minutes, and burst into flames.
Air India said 169 of the 230 passengers were Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
Vishwash, a British national, was in India for a few days to visit his family and was going back to the UK along with his brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh (45).
Vishwash, who still had his boarding pass, told HT, “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.”
