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PLANE crash survivor Vishwash Ramesh poses for a photo with The Sun, marking his first public appearance since his remarkable survival, and he exclaimed: “It’s a miracle.”
Vishwash, 40, was happy to show how he is recovering from the Air India disaster which killed 279 people.
But he revealed he is racked with guilt over the death of his brother Ajay on the flight.
He had tried to arrange two seats next to each other in row 11 by the emergency exits.
By the time he came to choose seats other passengers were sitting in part of the row so the brothers had to sit separately.
Vishwash – in Seat 11A – survived the crash and was able to crawl through a hole in the twisted fuselage of the downed Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
But Ajay was on the other side of the aisle in 11J and died along with 240 other passengers and crew.
Married dad-of-one Vishwash is now struggling with survivors’ guilt and said: “If we had been sat together we both might have survived.
“I tried to get two seats together but someone had already got one. Me and Ajay would have been sitting together.
“But I lost my brother in front of my eyes. So now I am constantly thinking ‘Why can’t I save my brother?’
“It’s a miracle I survived. I am okay physically but I feel terrible that I could not save Ajay.”
Overcome with emotion he told friends: “I wish I was not alive.”
Vishwash is recuperating in his family’s native village of Diu, located on India’s eastern coast, where he and his brother Ajay operated a fishing business consisting of two boats, which they had inherited from their father.
The fishing industry grinds to a halt when the monsoon season starts in June so Vishwash and Ajay were returning to England.
Vishwash was excited about reuniting with his wife Hiral and their four-year-old son at their home in Leicester. He and Ajay boarded flight AI 171 at around 1pm last Thursday, fastening their seatbelts in row 11.
But moments after take-off he knew there was a problem.
He said: “It felt like something got stuck and the lights started flickering.
“Everything happened in seconds. I realised we were going down.”
The pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 55, frantically radioed air traffic control to yell: “No thrust… May Day…May Day.”
Vishwash went on: “The aircraft wasn’t gaining altitude and was just gliding.
“After that, the plane seemed to speed up, before it suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.
“Everything was visible in front of my eyes when the crash happened.
“I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive.”
He unbuckled his seat belt and with everyone around him dead or dying he managed to crawl through an opening in the mangled fuselage.
He added: “Where I landed was closer to the ground and there was space too – and when my door broke – I saw that there was space. I saw an opening. I used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out.
“Everyone around me was either dead or dying. I still don’t understand how I escaped.”
He staggered out of the compound of a medical college as a huge fireball engulfed a hostel where 100 students and staff were having lunch in a canteen.
Stunned locals and rescuers spotted him as he bravely tried to go back into the raging inferno to look for Ajay before paramedics led him to an ambulance.
He was rushed to the Civil Hospital less than a mile away where he spent five days recovering during which time he was visited by Indian Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Doctors discharged him on Tuesday and he returned to the family home where his parents Bava and Manibhai are now supporting him along with his wife and child and younger brother Nayan, after flying in from their homes in Leicester.
Friends and neighbours in Diu have also been celebrating his incredible escape – but are also grieving.
As well as Ajay, another 14 people from the tiny island, a former Portuguese colony, died on the flight.
Vishwash’s childhood friend Bipin Bamania, 52, said: “He is getting great support from his family and they are obviously delighted he is alive.
“But they are all heartbroken as well over the loss of Ajay.
“I spoke to Vishwash after the crash and he said that he was in pain and needed to rest but he was basically okay.
“I am very happy that he survived but also very sad that his brother died.
“Vishwash spends part of the year here and part of it in England.
“He runs two fishing boats with his family but the fishing stops when the monsoon comes.
“So then he goes back to England.
“Vishwas is a very good person. He gets along with everyone very well.
“He has no animosity with anyone and when he is here in the village he likes to hang out with his friends.
“He is a great family man, too. He loves his wife and child very much.
“When his son was born he was delighted. During the months he is here in India he rings them twice a day every single day.
“That has always been his routine.”
The grim process of identifying victims through DNA and dental records was continuing yesterday with 202now positively identified.
A total of 157 bodies have been handed to families for funerals.
A welcome from the world’s luckiest man
By Robin Perrie, Chief Foreign Correspondent
WITH India’s torrential monsoon rains beating down, the luckiest man in the world shuffled onto his veranda.
The physical injuries Vishwash Ramesh suffered when flight AI 171 exploded as it crashed seconds after take-off are still visible on his face.
But he can’t celebrate his miracle escape because of the hidden mental trauma – sitting eight seats away in the same aisle was his younger brother, Ajay, who perished along with everyone else on the flight.
And survivors’ guilt is weighing so heavily on his shoulders you fear he will never shrug it off.
I met Vishwash at the brightly-coloured, three-storeyed family home in the coastal village of Diu where he is now recuperating after five days in hospital.
He arrived back there late on Tuesday and within hours was carrying his brother’s coffin as the village turned out to mourn his passing.
Under doctors’ orders, Vishwash returned early from the funeral to rest again at home.
Surrounded by grieving family members, he was happy to come out of the house to greet us.
As women cooked chapattis on outside fires he posed for pictures before limping back inside, the trauma clearly hanging heavy over him.
Friends had already told me how he is a hospitable, amiable man who never has a bad word to say about anyone.
That shone through as he made us welcome in his home, but just as evident thanks to his soft handshake was the trauma he has suffered – physical and mental.
The luckiest man in the world barely had enough strength left to keep hold of my outstretched hand.
