'I Can't Believe How': Lone British Survivor In Air India Plane Crash Recounts Final Moments Of Flight 171
Kumar said that 10 second after takeoff, the flight seemed to stop midair and then crashed into the medical college.
Published : June 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM IST
Ahmedabad: “It all happened before my eyes. I can't believe how I came out alive. For some time, I thought I am also going to die, but when I opened my eyes, I thought I was alive,” Vishwas Kumar, the lone British survivor in Thursday's tragic Air India plane crash in Gujarat's Ahmedabad is still in a state of shock and disbelief.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight AI171 with 242 passengers on board crashed on the BJ Medical College hostel moments after takeoff from the Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. The crash killed 241 passengers including 10 crew members with Kumar emerging as the lone survivor.
Kumar, who is undergoing treatment at the Amdavad civil hospital recounted the happenings on the ill-fated flight moments before the crash.
To a question as to what happened after the flight took off from the Ahmedabad airport, Kumar said, “10 seconds after takeoff, it seemed as if the plane had stopped mid-air. Then green and white lights lit up inside the flight. Then it suddenly crashed on the ground”.
“I somehow unbuckled my seat belt and came out from the debris,” the lone crash survivor recalled. Kumar said that the seat on which he was seated crashed on the ground floor of the hostel.
“So I somehow managed to come out of the plane while others could not. I came walking out of the crash site and was shifted to the hospital by the ambulance”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning visited the Ahmedabad civil hospital where he inquired about the well-being of Kumar and others injured in the crash. Besides the 241 passengers on board the flight, the crash also killed at least 14 people including four MBBS students a doctor's wife at the BJ Medical College.
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