A devastating air tragedy unfolded in India on Thursday, as an Air India flight en route to London crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad. The flight crashed shortly after takeoff from the Indian city, carrying at least 242 people. The airline said in a statement that the plane had 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian, and seven Portuguese.
According to the airline, 242 passengers and crew members were on board the doomed flight. Air India added: “Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals.”
The plane crashed into the medical college dorm of BJ Medical College Civil Hospital. Only one person survived.
The crash had just a sole survivor, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was sat in seat 11A. Police said he survived by jumping out of the plane’s emergency exit.
He is now receiving treatment in hospital.
“It all happened so quickly,” said Ramesh, who suffered “impact injuries” but was able to walk away from the crash, as shown by footage shortly after the flight was down on the ground.
The aircraft is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, and it was the first time that the passenger plane had ever gone down in human history.
“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke, I tried to escape through it, and I did,” the 40-year-old British national told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.
What he said seemingly aligns with the footage of Air India going down.
X User Posts Footage of Emergency Door On Air India
One person on X posted close-up footage of the doomed flight in the air as it descended towards the ground shortly after takeoff.
As it went out of view, you could see what looked like the emergency door flying through the air, which is where Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was seated and ultimately jumped from.
