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For the world, Vishwas Kumar Ramesh became the miracle man of the Air India AI-171 crash — the sole survivor who walked out of the wreckage of a Boeing 787 that killed 260 people.
But a year later, Kumar says survival was not the end of his ordeal. Behind the headlines, television interviews and public fascination with how he escaped, he has been living with sleepless nights, anxiety and memories that refuse to fade.
“People see that I’ve survived, but they don’t always see the challenges that continue behind closed doors,” Kumar said in a statement marking the first anniversary of the crash. “I still struggle with sleep, anxiety and difficult memories.”
The June 12, 2025 crash near Ahmedabad lasted only seconds. Its impact on Kumar, he suggests, has lasted every day since. The London-bound Dreamliner crashed into the BJ Medical College campus moments after take-off, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground. Kumar escaped with injuries. His brother Ajay, seated elsewhere on the aircraft, did not.
“I’m grateful to be alive, but survival is only part of the story,” he said. “What I’ve faced since then has been far more difficult than I can put into words.”
The remarks offer a glimpse into the emotional toll carried by the 40-year-old British national, who found himself thrust into the spotlight after becoming the only passenger to survive one of India’s worst aviation disasters.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, images of a bloodied and limping Kumar walking away from the crash site spread across television screens and social media. Speaking from a hospital bed hours later, he recounted waking up amid wreckage and bodies before scrambling to safety.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran,” he had told Hindustan Times.
The crash claimed the life of his brother Ajay Kumar Ramesh, who had been travelling with him to London after a family visit in India. In interviews over the past year, Kumar has repeatedly returned to that loss, describing it as the deepest wound left by the tragedy.
While physical injuries healed, the emotional scars proved harder to overcome.
Friends, advisers and family members have previously described how Kumar struggled with recurring memories of the crash, difficulty sleeping and the challenge of adjusting to life after surviving an event that killed almost everyone around him. He has spoken of feeling isolated, withdrawing from public life and finding it difficult to move beyond the events of that afternoon.
The disaster also brought financial strain. According to earlier accounts, Kumar and his brother had invested much of their savings in a fishing business in India. After the crash and Ajay’s death, the family’s plans were thrown into uncertainty, adding another layer of stress to an already devastating year.
His statement comes as India marks one year since the crash of Air India flight AI-171 and investigators prepare to release a status update on the probe into the accident.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner departed Ahmedabad for London Gatwick on June 12, 2025, carrying 242 passengers and crew. Roughly 32 seconds after take-off, the aircraft lost power and crashed into the BJ Medical College campus. The disaster killed 241 people on board and 19 people on the ground.
Investigators have spent the past year examining what happened during those final moments. A preliminary report released last year revealed that fuel control switches for both engines moved from the RUN position to CUTOFF shortly after take-off, depriving the engines of fuel. The report also disclosed a brief cockpit conversation in which one pilot asked the other why the fuel had been cut off, only to be told that he had not done so.
The upcoming status report is expected to outline the progress of the investigation but is not expected to identify the cause of the crash.
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