Air India Flight A171: A Tragedy with One Survivor

More than 260 people were killed when Air India Flight A171, bound for London, crashed into a residential neighborhood in Ahmedabad, India, just minutes after takeoff. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 242 people, including children and infants, when it suddenly lost altitude and exploded into flames. The crash also claimed the lives of at least 24 people on the ground, many of them medical students and families living in a hostel.

Miraculously, one man survived.

The Sole Survivor

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a businessman living in the UK, was seated in 11A when the plane went down. “There was a loud noise… and then everything happened so fast,” he said. Dazed and bloodied, he walked from the wreckage surrounded by the bodies of fellow passengers.

His brother, Nayan, shared the family’s shock: “He doesn’t know how he made it out. When he called us, all he said was, ‘Find Ajay, find Ajay,’” referring to their other brother who was also on the flight and presumed dead.

Ramesh suffered multiple injuries but is now in stable condition. Videos showed him stumbling toward an ambulance, smoke and fire behind him.

Aftermath and Investigation

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said the intense fire from over 125,000 liters of jet fuel made survival virtually impossible. One of the plane’s black boxes has been recovered, but the cause of the crash remains unknown.

Air India has pledged compensation to victims’ families, will cover medical costs for survivors, and has vowed to help rebuild the damaged hostel.

A Nation Mourns

The crash marks one of India’s deadliest air disasters in decades. As investigations continue, families grieve, survivors recover, and one man tries to make sense of why he lived—while so many others did not.