5 days Ago
The pair had just been on a family trip to India and were on their way back to the UK when tragedy struck. Ramesh somehow survived with minor injuries, and he is still unable to explain what happened to him.
“I have no idea how I survived,” he said, describing how he unbuckled and walked away from the crash site. His brother, a few rows away, did not. A distressing video of Ramesh staggering away from the blazing plane with smoke spewing behind him has been widely shared.
Probe Started as Grief Widens
Moments after takeoff, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 125,000 liters of fuel on board for a 10-hour flight from Ahmedabad to London had dropped out of the sky. It crashed into a medical student hostel, where several people on the ground were killed. Many bodies were too small to be recognizable after the fierce blaze, officials said. Now, more than 150 families have received bodies, and funerals are increasingly occurring across the country.
A mayday call had been made prior to the crash, and authorities are reviewing both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. The investigation is being led by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau with assistance from British, American and Boeing experts. A high-level committee constituted by the Indian government should come out with a preliminary report within the next three months.
Air India has started safety checks on its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft. Twenty-six of 33 aircraft have cleared inspection to date. The airline also cut its international widebody capacity by 15% due to continued inspections and regional tensions.
Families Struggle with Loss
In Mumbai, a city 160 miles from Diu, Imtiaz Ali Syed mourned four members of his family who died in the crash — his brother Javed, his brother’s wife, their daughter, and their son. The London-based family had traveled to Mumbai to celebrate Eid al-Adha and to see their dying mother.
Syed articulated the profound sadness and disbelief that gripped his family. “Someone shook me awake and said a plane had crashed in Ahmedabad and I should see what flight Javed was on,” he said.
Recalling his late brother as being a constant support for the family, Syed revealed, “He was the one who oversaw my grandmother’s medicines, he would be the one to keep an eye on my mother, the one who would look after our sister.” His loss is still unreal to him. “Maybe a week, a month, he’ll call and say, ‘I’m there.’”
