Extraordinary new footage has emerged of the sole survivor of Air India Flight 171 walking away from the plane wreckage while it exploded behind him.
The Gatwick-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a residential hostel for student doctors moments after taking off in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, was the only survivor of the plane crash which killed 242 people on board, including pilots, crew members and families with young children.
Dozens more were killed on the ground and doctors in India have confirmed 270 bodies have so far been recovered from the site of the plane crash.
અવિશ્વસનીય પરંતુ સત્ય!
— Sagar Patoliya (@kathiyawadiii) June 16, 2025
અમદાવાદ પ્લેન ક્રેશમાં ચમત્કારિક રીતે બચેલા રમેશ વિશ્વાસનો વધુ એક વિડિઓ સામે આવ્યો.
દુર્ઘટના થયા પછી હાથમાં ફોન સાથે ચાલીને બહાર નીકળ્યો રમેશ વિશ્વાસ. #AhmedabadPlaneCrash pic.twitter.com/94WDepkKjn
Footage captured Mr Ramesh, a father of one, walking away from a raging inferno just metres behind him, clutching his mobile phone in hand.
Panicked bystanders can be seen screaming and pointing toward the blaze, as they called for emergency services.
Spotting the stunned survivor, a man in a turquoise turban ran over and cried out, “Plane fatyo che!”— “The plane exploded!”.
Mr Ramesh, who was born in India and has lived in the UK since 2003, has a wife and four-year-old son.
He was understood to have been returning from a business trip with his brother Ajaykumar Ramesh, 35, who is believed to have been seated in seat 11J — just four seats away and is not thought to have survived the crash.
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.”
Police discovered Mr Ramesh - who had been seated by the window in seat 11A - in a residential area of Gujarat and transported him to a nearby hospital for treatment. He was visited in hospital by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Hindustan Times reported that Mr Ramesh told DD News: "When the flight took off, within five to 10 seconds it felt like it was stuck in the air.
"Suddenly, the lights started flickering - green and white - then the plane rammed into some establishment that was there."
Mr Ramesh told the newspaper the section of the plane he was in landed on the ground, rather than hitting the roof of a building.
"When I saw the exit, I thought I could come out. I tried, and I did. Maybe the people who were on the other side of the plane weren't able to," he said.
He added: "I don't know how I survived. I saw people dying in front of my eyes - the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me ... I walked out of the rubble."
