The sole miraculous survivor of the Air India tragedy is unlikely to return to the UK because he is too scared to fly, his family revealed recently.
Family members of Leicester businessman Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, aged 40, disclosed that he is still severely affected by the crash in June, which resulted in the deaths of 260 individuals. Currently, he is undergoing counseling in India.
His brother-in-law mentioned that they do not foresee him coming back to his residence in London or the family home in Leicester. “I believe he will remain there, as he would be too frightened to board an aircraft again,” he remarked.
Among the 241 passengers who perished when the Boeing 787 lost power and crashed just moments after departing Ahmedabad for Gatwick, 52 were British citizens. An additional 19 individuals on the ground lost their lives.
Mr Ramesh managed to crawl from his seat, 11A, and escape the wreckage with cuts to his face and chest injuries. His brother Ajay, 35, was killed.
Mr. Ramesh’s wife, Hiral, along with their four-year-old son, traveled to India to support his recovery but have since returned to the UK. She mentioned that he is still receiving “treatment.”
It comes as:
- Relatives of British victims whose remains were mixed up or ‘lost’ said they have been ‘abandoned’ by the Foreign Office and Indian authorities.
- Bereaved families have launched a High Court action against Air India to force the release of maintenance records and pilots’ medical and training files.
- A US law firm claims electrical failure following a water leak may have caused the crash, not pilot error.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the British sole survivor of the horrific Air India crash, pictured in hospital after the tragedy
This photo shared on X by India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shows the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, the families of victims Ashok Patel, 74, and his wife Shobhana, 71; and Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, who died with his husband Jamie, 45, have urged her to probe how the remains of their loved ones were mixed up or, in the case of Mr Greenlaw-Meek, ‘completely lost’.
Mrs Patel’s remains were returned to her family in a casket along with the remains of another victim.
India sent the wrong remains to the family of Mr Greenlaw-Meek, from London, and there are fears that his body will never be returned.
The two families say they have not received any apology for the blunders and have accused the Indian authorities and Foreign Office of ‘a severe lack of communication’.
Letters from the families to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and former Foreign Secretary David Lammy have allegedly gone unanswered.
In their letter to Ms Cooper, the families say: ‘Silence and a severe lack of communication force us to bring this to your attention. We feel abandoned.’
India’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch revealed in an interim report that seconds after take-off the plane’s fuel-control switches were moved to the ‘cut-off’ position, starving the engines.
One pilot was heard on the aircraft’s voice recorder asking his co-pilot why he had cut off the fuel supply – only for him to reply that he had not done so.
Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, who died with his husband Jamie, 45. Fiongal’s family have been in touch with Yvette Cooper
The aircraft struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, 52 of whom were British
Moments later – with not enough time for one of the engines to restart – the plane crashed into a medical hostel.
Mike Andrews, of US-based Beasley Allen Law Firm, claimed the crash could have been caused by an electrical failure after a water leak.
He said a month before the disaster, the US Federal Aviation Administration highlighted reports of water leaks on 787s ‘due to improperly installed waterline couplings, and water leaking into the electronics equipment bays from above the floor in the main cabin’.
Mr Andrews said Mr Ramesh told of lights flickering, indicating an electrical issue. Boeing declined to comment.
