The sole survivor of an Air India flight that crashed shortly after take off has helped carry his brother’s coffin after he was killed in the disaster.
The Gatwick-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, crashed in a huge fireball in the Indian city of Ahmedabad just seconds after it went into the air.
Aviation experts say it is nearly impossible to survive a fully-fuelled plane crash into a high-rise building. Yet, British father Vishwash Kumar Ramesh remarkably stumbled from the wreckage of the flight moments before it exploded.
Mr Ramesh had been sat in seat 11A, just metres away from his younger brother Ajaykumar Ramesh, who was killed in the devastating crash.
It is believed that the younger brother had been sat in seat 11J, just four seats away from where Mr Ramesh was.
The 40-year-old was seen with bandages on his and walking with a limp as he helped carry his brother’s coffin, which was decorated with colourful flowers, on Wednesday.
At one stage another mourner appears to try and help Mr Ramesh carry the coffin but the grieving survivor refuses. Instead the mourner is seen support Mr Ramesh as he limps on.
Astonishing footage captured shorty after the plane came down showed Mr Ramesh stumbling away from the crash site, visibly bloodied and disoriented.
His t-shirt was ripped and he was carrying a phone in his hand and a boarding pass in his pocket.
Another brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, told Sky News that Mr Ramesh video-called their father moments after the crash to say: “I don’t know how I’m alive.”
A relative called Jay also described how Mr Ramesh had been “painted in blood” and had injuries to his face.
Speaking to local media from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh had explained: “Thirty seconds after take off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed.
“It all happened so quickly … 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.”
All but one of the 242 people on board the London-bound flight died in the crash where the plane crashed into accommodation used by trainee doctors.
There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian on the flight, Air India confirmed.
Local doctors later confirmed that 270 bodies had been found following the disaster.
