The sole survivor of Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad, western India, has told doctors he was thrown clear of the aircraft before it erupted in flames.
Vishwashkumar Ramesh, from Leicester, in central England, was in seat 11A of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday, killing 241 people on board plus a number of people on the ground.
Mr Ramesh’s older brother Ajay was also aboard Air India Flight 171 to London Gatwick Airport and died in what is the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. Most of the passengers were Indian or British.
The plane landed on a doctors’ hostel in the densely populated city and turned into a fireball after splitting apart. Debris was spread across the streets and the plane’s tail came to rest on top of the BJ Medical College building. Local media has put the death toll on the ground as high as 24, but this has not been confirmed.
Air India has said the investigation would take time. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has said a team of experts is ready to go to India to help in the probe.
Aviation experts have speculated about a number of possible causes for the crash, from both engines failing – possibly due to a bird strike, as happened in the “Miracle on the Hudson” crash in New York in 2009 – to the flaps on the aircraft’s wings not being set to the correct position for take-off.
Wreckage
The cause of the crash, in which the fully fuelled aircraft tore into buildings and exploded into flames, remains unknown. Salvage crews are still sifting through the wreckage to find possible survivors on the ground, alongside technical data like the voice and data recorders that are crucial to piece together the final moments of the doomed flight.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
One of two black boxes from the plane had been found, reported the Hindustan Times.
The twin-engined aircraft had reached an altitude of 190 metres and a speed of about 320kph when it crashed, according to data from Flightradar24.
Its pilots issued a mayday call to air traffic controllers immediately after take-off, said India’s civil aviation regulator. The aircraft was in the command of captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.
Mr Ramesh was visited on Friday by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a local government hospital.
The bloodied and burnt passenger had been seen walking near the crash site, surrounded by an incredulous crowd, in the minutes after Flight 171 came down. A video of the moment was widely shared on social media.
His injuries were not life-threatening and he may be able to offer valuable clues as to what caused the accident.
When the flight took off, "within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air" before the lights started flickering green and white, Mr Ramesh told the Hindustan Times.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,” he told reporters. “There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere.”
Dr Dhaval Gameti, who examined him, said: “He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body. But he seems to be out of danger.”
Another medic said Mr Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, ejecting him, before there was a loud explosion.
Seat 11A is the left window seat in the first row of economy class, which is positioned right behind an emergency exit. An Air India 787 Dreamliner typically seats 256 passengers in a two-class configuration, with 18 seats in business and 238 seats in economy.
Speaking outside the family home in Leicester, the survivor's brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, said: “We were just shocked as soon as we heard it.
“I last spoke to him yesterday morning. We’re devastated, just devastated. He said, ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane.’”
Another of Mr Ramesh’s relatives, Jay, said the survivor spoke to his father after the crash and asked after his brother, saying: ‘Where’s Ajay’?”
Mr Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday.
“The scene of devastation is saddening,” he said in a post on X.
Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson also arrived in Ahmedabad in the early hours of Friday.
Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior state police officer, said on Thursday the death toll was more than 240, revising down a previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been double counted.
The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the largest city.
“Almost 70 per cent of the passengers were found in their seats, most of them had their seat belts on,” a first responder told local newspaper Indian Express.
Shares
While Air India is not publicly traded, shares of rival airline IndiGo parent Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet were both down 4 per cent in early Friday trade.
Boeing's shares fell 5 per cent on Thursday following the crash.
It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara – a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024.
The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's third-largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm.
In an unrelated incident, an Air India flight from the Thai island of Phuket headed to Delhi made an emergency landing on Friday after a bomb threat was received on board, Phuket's airport said.
Victims
Tributes have been paid in the UK to many of the victims of Thursday’s crash. The Gloucester Muslim Community group offered “sincere and deepest condolences” after Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their daughter Sara were reported to be among the victims.
“During this moment of overwhelming sorrow, our hearts go out to all those left behind,” a statement said.
“No words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss, but we pray that the family may find solace in the tremendous outpouring of compassion and solidarity from communities across the world.”
Air India has set up friends and relatives assistance centres at Gatwick, Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad airports to provide support in the wake of AI171’s crash.
“These centres are facilitating the travel of family members to Ahmedabad,” the airline said in a post on X.
UK officials are being deployed to India to support the investigation, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed US teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were also headed to India with support from Boeing and GE Aerospace.
LOS ANGELES GALAXY 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
FOOTBALL TEST
Team X 1 Team Y 0
Scorers
Red card
Man of the Match
The biog
Family: Parents and four sisters
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing at American University of Sharjah
A self-confessed foodie, she enjoys trying out new cuisines, her current favourite is the poke superfood bowls
Likes reading: autobiographies and fiction
Favourite holiday destination: Italy
Posts information about challenges, events, runs in other emirates on the group's Instagram account @Anagowrunning
Has created a database of Emirati and GCC sportspeople on Instagram @abeermk, highlight: Athletes
Apart from training, also talks to women about nutrition, healthy lifestyle, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
UAE SQUAD
Ahmed Raza (Captain), Rohan Mustafa, Jonathan Figy, CP Rizwan, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Usman, Basil Hameed, Zawar Farid, Vriitya Aravind (WK), Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Zahoor Khan, Darius D'Silva, Chirag Suri
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20OneOrder%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20March%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Tamer%20Amer%20and%20Karim%20Maurice%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cairo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E82%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Series%20A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Results:
5pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600 metres
Winner: Dasan Da, Saeed Al Mazrooei (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Saabah, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Mukaram, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Winner: MH Tawag, Richard Mullen, Elise Jeanne
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) | Dh70,000 | 1,400m
Winner: RB Inferno, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Juthoor, Jim Crowley, Erwan Charpy
