Joy and grief for lone Air India crash survivor as miracle escape contrasts with loss of brother

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This screengrab of video footage taken and released by the Narendra Modi Youtube Channel on June 13, 2025 shows India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) meeting with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, sole survivor of the Air India flight 171 crash, at a hospital in Ahmedabad. — Picture via YouTube/Narendra Modi via Reuters

LEICESTER, June 14 — The UK-based family of the lone survivor of the Air India crash were torn yesterday between joy at his miracle escape and grief at the loss of his brother.

“We are happy Vishwash has been saved, but on the other hand, we are just heartbroken about Ajay,” his cousin told AFP outside the family home in central Leicester.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is believed to be the only person to have survived the crash when Air India Flight 171 plummeted from the sky shortly after taking off from the northern Indian city of Ahmedabad.

His brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh, was on the same flight, but is believed to have perished in the disaster. There were 242 passengers and crew on the plane, including 53 British citizens.

At least 24 people were killed on the ground, officials said, after the aeroplane landed on a canteen building where students were having lunch.

Members of local community stand outside family home of Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British survivor of the London-bound Air India aircraft crash near Ahmedabad Airport in India, in Leicester June 12, 2025. — Reuters pic

Since Thursday’s tragedy, the small Leicester street where Ramesh’s parents and younger brother lived has been flooded with visitors.

Ramesh lives not far away with his wife and son, his cousin Hiren Kantilal, 19, told AFP.

Ajay also lived in the town, one of the oldest in England, and the two brothers ran a confectionary business together.

“They are wonderful people, and heartful people. They are greatest men I have ever seen in my life, both of them,” said Kantilal.

The brothers were returning to the UK after spending a few weeks on holiday in India, and the family had been waiting to go and pick them up at Gatwick airport.

Hiren Kantilal, cousin of Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, gives an interview to an AFP journalist in the street outside the family home of Vishwash, the sole survivor of an Air India crash in Ahmedabad City in India, in Leicester June 13, 2025. — AFP pic

‘I am totally fine’

Shortly after the crash, they were shocked when Ramesh, who had reportedly been in seat 11A, called his father to say he was alive. Ajay was seated at the other end of the row.

“Our plane has been crashed,” Ramesh told his dad, according to his cousin.

“He was bleeding all over him, in the face and everything, and he said: ‘I am just waiting for my brother and I don’t know how I get out of the plane’.

“He said: ‘do not worry about me, try to find about Ajay Kumar’ and he said: ‘I am totally fine’.”

Kantilal said his cousin had waited for about 10 to 15 minutes seeking his brother, and then was whisked away to hospital by the rescue services.

Images which went viral on social media apparently showed Ramesh walking away from the wreckage of the 787-8 Boeing Dreamliner, and have been splashed across the front pages of British media along with a photo of him in his hospital bed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Ramesh yesterday at the hospital where he is being treated for burns and other injuries, footage on his YouTube channel showed.

“Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn’t believe how I managed to come out alive from that,” Ramesh said from his hospital bed, speaking in Hindi to national broadcaster DD News.

His parents had also been desperately trying to contact his brother Ajay on Thursday. “The call was going through, but no-one was answering the call,” Kantilal said.

At the family home, relatives were frantically scanning their phones to try to buy a flight to Ahmedabad later yesterday afternoon.

Downing Street said that the foreign ministry had been in touch with Ramesh to offer him consular assistance. — AFP