AHMEDABAD: Agony and trauma were writ large on the bandaged face of Viswashkumar Ramesh - the lone survivor of the devastating June 12 Air India plane crash that killed all other 241 people on board - as he shouldered his younger brother Ajay's bier on his final journey at their ancestral Bucharwada village in the Union Territory of Diu on Wednesday.
Villagers present at Ajay's cremation said Viswash broke down multiple times, weighed down by the emotional burden.
Even as his miraculous survival has left the world awestruck, Viswash is still processing the death of his younger brother Ajay, who was seated in the same row on the ill-fated Ahmedabad-London (Gatwick) flight AI 171. Viswash, a 40-year-old businessman from Leicester, was occupying seat number 11A, a window seat, while Ajay was on 11J.
Recounting his harrowing experience to police, who questioned him as part of the investigation before he was discharged from Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Tuesday evening, Viswash said the emergency door near his seat blew off and he was thrown out and landed on the mound of sand between the hostel and the mess buildings.
"Initially, I thought I was dead," he recalled. "But then, I noticed a gap near the fuselage, managed to unbuckle my seatbelt and used my leg to push myself out, crawling through the opening."
Authorities noted that the mound of soil cushioned Viswash's fall, sparing him from severe injuries. The area was undergoing maintenance and the soil had been left for landscaping. TNN
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