Astonishing new footage shows the moment the British sole survivor of the deadly Air India crash calmly walked away while on the phone as the aircraft exploded behind him.
British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was the only survivor of the Thursday crash of Air India flight AI171.
The tragedy, one of the worst aviation disasters this century, saw 241 people on the plane including the pilots and crew die after the Gatwick-bound aircraft failed just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, western India.
Dozens more were killed after the plane crashed into a densely populated part of the city, with doctors saying yesterday that 270 bodies have so far been recovered.
Shocking new footage taken just outside the medical college the plane crashed into showed him calmly walking away as an inferno raged just a few metres behind him.
The father, who was in India with his brother for the best part of a year and was returning to London, where his family live, was seen wandering the streets as a plume of thick, black smoke towered over him.
Locals were heard screaming and calling for emergency services in the video.
One man in a turquoise turban ran over to the dazed survivor and cried out: ‘Plane fatyo che (the plane exploded).’
Shocking new footage taken just outside the medical college the plane crashed into showed him calmly walking away as an inferno raged just a few metres behind him
The father was seen wandering the streets as a plume of thick, black smoke towered over him
British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh (pictured) was the only survivor of the Thursday crash of Air India flight AI171
Vishwash, who was being treated at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, just a short distance from where the plane crashed into buildings, tragically lost his brother Ajay in the crash.
He was sat in the seat next to Vishwash, who has since spoken of the moment he escaped from seat 11A on the burning plane.
While sitting up on a hospital bed, he told DD India that he was ‘feeling better’ and that the ‘treatment is going good’.
Still in shock, he admitted he ‘can’t explain’ everything that he witnessed as the plane plummeted to the ground.
He managed to escape after his side of the plane fell onto the ground of a floor building, forcing his way out of the plane past a broken door, before being assisted by locals and taken to hospital in an ambulance.
‘The emergency door was broken, my seat is broken,’ he said.
Asked if he escaped the plane by jumping to the ground, he replied: ‘I am not jumping. I just walked out innit.’
‘It’s a miracle,’ he said when discussing his survival and injuries.
The plane crashed into a fireball after a suspected double-engine failure shortly after takeoff
The Gatwick-bound plane carrying 242 passengers, including 53 British nationals, crashed just moments after take-off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat on Thursday
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, lying in hospital with a bloodied face and injuries after surviving the tragic crash
Remnants of the fuselage and the landing gear were seen dangling through a gaping hole in the side of the canteen, with half-finished plates of food clearly visible on benches inside
Parts of the jet crashed into the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital
His doctor added: ‘He is having minor injuries only. He has some abrasions over his left forearm and swelling over left eyelid and over the eyes.
‘Chest and abdomen is clear, no lung fractures present. The patient is vitally stable.’
Despite being in remarkable good health for a plane crash survivor, his family have also had to suffer the grief of losing his brother.
Vishwash’s father Ramesh has been at his bedside, but is reportedly too upset to speak.
Family friend Deepak Devjil said: ‘He is still grappling with the tragedy.’
Vishwash’s family are among the countless still reeling from the tragedy, which investigators are still working to understand.
MailOnline reported that officials have now found the second black box from the doomed plane, which will reveal a second-by-second reconstruction of the events that led to the fatal fireball crash.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) captures all audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, radio transmissions, warning alarms and ambient mechanical sounds.
It will allow investigators to finally understand what happened in the moments leading up to one of the world’s worst aviation disasters in a decade.
Astonishing footage showed the man walking away from the scene with some visible injuries to his face
Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies at the site where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025
A view of the site where the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India’s western state of Gujarat on June 12, 2025
Planes usually carry two black boxes – one records flight data, such as altitude and speed and the other records sound from the cockpit, so investigators can hear what the pilots are saying and listen for any unusual noises.
The first black box was recovered on Friday from the rooftop of a building at the site of the crash just 28 hours after the crash by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
Authorities say it will now be easier to determine the exact cause of the crash with both the CVR and the Flight Data Recorder having been found.
Aviation experts believe the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may have suddenly lost power ‘at the most critical phase of flight’ after takeoff.
The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double engine stall.
Officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are leading the investigation.
Indian aviation officials confirmed the final words of the pilot, moments before the plane crashed into buildings near Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, were Mayday distress calls.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, desperately cried: ‘Thrust not achieved… falling… Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’
Boeing experts have arrived in Ahmedabad today to investigate the crash that killed 241 people onboard and nearly 30 on the ground, NDTV reported.
Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies at the site, showing part of its registration ‘VT-ANB’, where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025
People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India’s Gujarat state
Rescue team members work as smoke rises at the site in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025
The Dreamliner had undergone comprehensive maintenance checks (C checks) in June 2023, with the next scheduled for December 2025, Press Trust of India reported on Sunday.
Elsewhere, a new bombshell video provides evidence that the plane lost power after take off, leading to the catastrophic crash.
Commercial airline pilot Steve Schreiber, who analyses plane crashes and close calls, said a new HD-quality video reveals the doomed Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered a ‘dual engine failure’ before crashing in what was one of India’s worst aviation disasters.
The jet began losing height moments after take-off and exploded into a fireball after smashing into a medical hostel on the ground in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Initially Mr Schreiber, best known as Captain Steve online, suspected there had been an exceptionally simple error in the cockpit when the co-pilot was asked to retract the landing gear, with devastating consequences.
However, a higher quality version of the original video of the crash has emerged, with higher quality visuals and sound, which Mr Schreiber believes could prove that a dual engine failure led to the plane’s terrifying final moments.
The 63-year-old, who has 26 years of flying experience – including 11 as a captain – and has flown in 60 different aircraft, said a tiny detail which can be seen on the new video is a ‘total gamechanger’.
Mr Schreiber explained on his Youtube channel Captain Steeeve that beneath the right wing of the aeroplane, he could see a ‘protrusion on the belly of the aircraft’. Underneath that there is a ‘little grey dot’, he added.
He said this is evidence of the Ram Access Turbine (RAT) deploying on the plane.
Police said they had found a lone survivor who had been sitting in seat 11A when Flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff in India this morning
A family member cries upon hearing the news of her brother who died when the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025
The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) captures all audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, radio transmissions, warning alarms and ambient mechanical sounds (Pictured: A stock image of a CVR)
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, left, and First Officer Clive Kunder, right, avoided a three storey apartment before the crash which took the lives of themselves and their passengers
‘Many aeroplanes have it,’ he said. ‘It is just behind the wing on the right side of the aeroplane, there is a little door that holds it in.
‘It looks like a little Evinrude motor, it’s a little two bladed prop.
‘The purpose is to provide electrical and hydraulic pressure for the aircraft on an extreme emergency.’
Mr Schreiber said that on a 787 there are three things that will deploy the RAT automatically.
He said: ‘A massive electrical failure, a massive hydraulic failure, or a dual engine failure.
‘Any one of those three things will cause that RAT to deploy.’
The aviation expert said that the protrusion and the grey dot were visual evidence of the RAT deploying on the aircraft.
He added: ‘That little grey dot is the RAT. The protrusion is the door that opened to allow the rat to come down.’
Mr Schreiber then detailed the second piece of evidence – the sound of the video.
He said: ‘A RAT makes a distinctive sound, it sounds like a propeller aeroplane going by, or a real high-pitched squeal. It is basically spinning at the speed of sound to produce the energy, electrical and hydraulic that it needs to.
‘If you weren’t looking at it, it sounded like a single-engine prop aeroplane just flew by.
‘The RAT was originally designed as the absolute last resort, assuming there is going to be a dual engine failure at altitude.
The sole survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was visited by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in hospital yesterday
Chunks of the plane’s fuselage and tail were seen protruding from a demolished building
Firefighters work at the site of the crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
‘It is not designed for an aeroplane at 400- 500ft. But it is evidence for us.’
His theory is that the crash was caused by a dual-engine failure.
He added: ‘It is evidence for us it was dual engine failure, most likely. It could have been electrical issue, it could have been hydraulic issue, it could have been either one of that.
‘But I think the fact the aeroplane is mushing out the sky gives the idea it was a dual engine failure.’
Meanwhile, the first funerals for some of the victims have been held in Ahmedabad.
Health officials have returned the first bodies identified through DNA testing to grieving families in the city, though most relatives are still waiting.
Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner, told ABC News: ‘They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response.’
