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Air India crash: Lone survivor discharged, performs brother’s last rites
Visuals of a bruised Ramesh limping away from the debris of the plane that crashed seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad became one of the defining images of the crash
Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 40, the lone survivor of the June 12 Air India plane crash, performed the last rites of his brother, who was killed in the aviation disaster, after he was discharged from an Ahmedabad hospital on Tuesday evening.
Ahmedabad Civil Hospital medical superintendent Rakesh Joshi said Ramesh was handed over the remains of his brother, Ajay, identified through DNA matching, for his cremation.
Ramesh said he was in Diu, over 370 km from Ahmedabad, to perform the last rites of Ajay, who was on seat number 11J of the Air India flight. Ramesh, a British citizen seated on 11A, was returning home on Air India flight AI-171 after visiting his native Diu with his brother.
Visuals of a bruised Ramesh limping away from the debris of the plane that crashed seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad became one of the defining images of the crash. The portion of the plane, where Ramesh was seated, fell on the ground floor of a medical college hostel premises. He got out of the broken door of the plane.
Asker Ali, the nodal officer for Diu, said top district officials attended Ajay’s funeral. “There were 15 passengers with roots in Diu aboard the flight. Four, including the lone survivor, had British citizenship. Four were Indian citizens, and the remaining seven were Portuguese.”
Ali said that the DNA of 12 have matched and their final rites have been performed in Diu. “The DNA samples of two victims are yet to be matched with their family members.”
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Union territory administrator Praful Patel met the families of the victims and visited the survivor at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
Ali said Ramesh received impact injuries on his chest, eyes, and feet. “He has recovered and is healthy. Ramesh is here with his relatives. Diu, being a small place, has a very close-knit society. Many passengers who were on board knew each other,” he said.
Ramesh, who was among 53 British nationals on the Air India flight, said there was a loud noise 30 seconds after take-off. When he got up, there were bodies all around. “I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,” he said last week.
Investigators have been surveying the wreckage of the plane to determine what caused the crash in a densely populated residential area in Ahmedabad shortly after Air India flight AI-171 took off. It was the worst civil aviation disaster in over a decade globally, and in India in over 30 years.
The London-bound flight with 242 people aboard began losing altitude seconds after take-off before crashing into buildings near Ahmedabad airport. Approximately 30 people died on the ground, while Ramesh was the only passenger who survived.
