{"id":273433,"date":"2025-11-09T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273433\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T15:00:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:00:17","slug":"air-india-plane-crash-heartbreaking-mystery-looms-over-tragic-air-india-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273433\/","title":{"rendered":"Air India plane Crash Heartbreaking mystery looms over tragic Air India crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

To many, Viswashkumar Ramesh is the luckiest man in the world – but he doesn’t think so.<\/p>\n

The sole survivor of India’s biggest aviation disaster struggles to find the words to describe the unbearable situation he’s in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Months on from the devastating crash of Air India flight 171, the 39-year-old is crippled by survivor’s guilt, knowing 19 people on the ground and the other 241 people on board died.<\/p>\n

\"SoleThe sole survivor of India’s biggest aviation disaster, Viswashkumar struggles to find the words to describe the unbearable situation he’s in.\u00a0 (Nine)<\/p>\n

Among them was his little brother Ajay, who was also on the plane.<\/p>\n

“I’m finding myself very difficult,” he told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

“Like mentally, physically and also my family suffering mentally.”<\/p>\n

One of aviation’s darkest days<\/p>\n

On June 12, Air India flight 171 took off from Ahmedabad Airport, bound for London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, just 32 seconds after takeoff, the Boeing 787 hit the ground and exploded into a massive fireball, leaving the surrounding neighbourhood destroyed.<\/p>\n

\"Sole242 people were on board Air India flight 171. (Nine)<\/p>\n

Given the mass destruction, rescuers assumed none of the 242 people on board could have survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, a man in a white T-shirt emerged from the inferno – Viswashkumar.<\/p>\n

He told 60 Minutes it was “painful” to speak about those moments – but that doesn’t mean they don’t replay in his mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I try to come out \u2026 but the flashback has come to my face, front of my eye,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am not sleep[ing] properly in night-time, day.”<\/p>\n

Somehow, Visvashkumar had managed to kick open the emergency exit and miraculously walk free from the wreckage.<\/p>\n

Injured and distressed, he was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

Satinda Singh was the ambulance supervisor in charge on that day.<\/p>\n

“His face was burnt, his hands were burnt \u2026 he was very confused and he was scared,” Santinda told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

“He was saying that, ‘I need to save my family, I want to save my family’.”<\/p>\n

At first, it looked like Viswashkumar was recovering well.<\/p>\n

Months on though, it’s obvious he’s not.<\/p>\n

Life after the plane crash<\/p>\n

Before the crash, Viswashkumar had been helping in his family’s fishing business in the small town of Diu on India’s west coast.<\/p>\n

\"Sole Viswashkumar Ramesh has been left physically and mentally traumatised by the crash. (Nine)<\/p>\n

On that fateful day in June, he had been on his way home to Leicester in England, where he’s lived for many years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, after the crash, he remained in India.<\/p>\n

That was until last month, when he finally made the brave journey back to Leicester with his wife and young son.<\/p>\n

Life has not returned to normal for Viswashkumar though.<\/p>\n

He told 60 Minutes he spends most of his time alone in his room; finding it too difficult to face the world.<\/p>\n

He is unable to work and in desperate need of physical and mental healthcare.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, the family’s business has been left in tatters.<\/p>\n

Viswashkumar’s brother Ajay had run the business, and without him there’s no money coming in.<\/p>\n

Acting as a spokesman for Viswashkumar, Radd Seiger said the support from Air India has not been good enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“These are beautiful peace loving people. They don’t want to war with Air India, they just want help,” he told 60 Minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SoleRadd Seiger has been nominated as spokesman for Viswashkumar and his family (Nine)<\/p>\n

“There’s an immediate, urgent need for intensive psychiatric treatment \u2026 and [Air India] need to pay for that, and it hasn’t happened in any meaningful way,” he said.<\/p>\n

Viswashkumar and his family don’t just need help – they’re also desperate to know why the plane crashed.<\/p>\n

It’s a sentiment shared by hundreds of other grieving families.<\/p>\n

Demanding answers<\/p>\n

You don’t have to walk far in the coastal town of Diu, on India’s west coast, to find someone affected by the country’s biggest aviation disaster.<\/p>\n

\"SoleThe coastal town of Diu has been left devastated. (Nine)<\/p>\n

“My whole family is broke down,” Viswashkumar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We need to know why \u2026 the plane crashed.”<\/p>\n

It’s a question that should have been answered already, nearly five months on from the crash – but infuriatingly for the hundreds of families who lost loved ones in the crash, it hasn’t.<\/p>\n

Not only is it unacceptable to the grieving families, it’s also inconceivable to aviation experts.<\/p>\n

\"SoleCaptain Sam Thomas told 60 Minutes the investigation into the disaster has been grossly inadequate. (Nine)<\/p>\n

Captain Sam Thomas has been flying Boeing planes for more than 25 years and now runs the Airline Pilots Association in India.<\/p>\n

He hoped there might have been an explanation of what went wrong with the fatal Air India flight in a preliminary report released by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau one month after the crash.<\/p>\n

He told 60 Minutes the lack of information may indicate an effort to pin the disaster on the pilots, when there could be so much more to it.<\/p>\n

“I can’t fathom at this moment that one of the pilots did it, but I’d be very disappointed if it comes out that the pilot did it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most intriguing part of the report is about the switches that control the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines.<\/p>\n

Just after take off, the switches were moved from the “run position” to the “cut-off” position, causing both engines to shut down.<\/p>\n

“This is a deliberate act. It does not go down on its own,” Captain Thomas told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

The report also revealed, “in the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut-off? The other pilot responded that he did not do so.”<\/p>\n

But Thomas warns of reading too much into such a small snippet of conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sole Just after take off, the switches were moved from the \u201crun position\u201d to the \u201ccut-off\u201d position, causing both engines to shut down. (Nine)<\/p>\n

“I need the conversation from the time they pushed back that airplane. That will set a tone as to what was going on,” he said.<\/p>\n

Frustratingly, there simply isn’t enough information in the preliminary report to know why the fuel supply was cut off.<\/p>\n

But whatever happened, hundreds of families who lost loved ones on board the doomed flight just want the truth to come out – and they believe that almost five months on, it should have.<\/p>\n

‘Where is the humanity?’<\/p>\n

In the wake of the devastating Air India crash, Viswashkumar has been left unable to work, and in desperate need of physical and mental healthcare.<\/p>\n

Air India has given him an interim payment of \u00a321,500 ($43,500) – the same handout offered to every family who lost a loved one on flight 171.<\/p>\n

If you ask Sanjiv Patel, who has been supporting Viswashkumar and his family, it’s not enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It just needs that desire from the top to make things happen in a personal way, not a bureaucratic way,” he told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

“Do an outreach to all of these families and literally give them support.”<\/p>\n

Radd Seiger agrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This isn’t going to happen via email or via lawyers. The chief executive has to come and meet with us so that he can help us, help [Viswashkumar],” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re trying to deal with it as if \u2026 he’s a number on a spreadsheet. Air India, please come and see us.”<\/p>\n

Nobody from Air India agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes, but in a statement, the airline said “We are deeply conscious of our responsibility to provide Mr Ramesh with support”.<\/p>\n

\"SoleMiten Pitel lost his parents in the disaster. (Nine)<\/p>\n

Miten Pitel also expected more from Air India.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His parents, Ashok and Shobhana, had been on a pilgrimage in India and were on their way home to England when the plane went down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He flew to Ahmedabad the next day to collect their bodies and take them back to London.<\/p>\n

But Miten’s anguish soon turned to horror when a British coroner tasked with confirming his mum and dad’s identities made a ghastly discovery.<\/p>\n

“They have identified that there’s further remains within mum’s casket,” he told 60 Minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So with mum \u2026 they’ve received something else or someone else.”<\/p>\n

“This is an extra level of grief that we have to go through.”<\/p>\n

Legal action<\/p>\n

Sadly, the shoddy investigation comes as no surprise to Thomas, who says in India, investigations like this often fall short of global expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I hate to say this, but we are such a populous country that sometimes the value of life is not as high as what it is in other developed countries,” the captain said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is improving for sure, but not to the levels that the other countries have.”<\/p>\n

That’s what is driving lawyer Michael Andrews, who’s taken up the fight for the families of more than 110 victims.<\/p>\n

He says the US is the best place to launch a case against a corporate giant like Air India or Boeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I have heard it alleged that if Americans had been on this flight, there might be a different level of scrutiny and urgency to the investigation. I can’t dispute that,” he told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

\"SoleMichael Andrews has taken up the fight for the families of more than 110 victims (Nine)<\/p>\n

Michael recently travelled to India and saw the crash site for himself.<\/p>\n

He believes the country’s aviation investigators know much more about what went wrong on flight 171 than they’re letting on publicly.<\/p>\n

The flight data recorder was recovered from the wreckage and should give a detailed history of the aircraft’s performance – but it’s being kept secret.<\/p>\n

“By releasing that information, the families can know fairly quickly what happened here, how it happened and why,” he said.<\/p>\n

Over in the UK, Miten Patel is also taking legal action. He says he’ll do whatever it takes to find out why his precious parents were killed and hold whoever is responsible to account.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They’re answers the sole survivor of the tragedy, Viswashkumar Ramesh, deserves too.<\/p>\n

For now though, all he wants is for Air India to listen to him.<\/p>\n

“Just come and sit together and that’s it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Come and meet.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full episode of 60 Minutes on 9Now.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To many, Viswashkumar Ramesh is the luckiest man in the world – but he doesn’t think so. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-273433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}