Ahmedabad: The lone survivor of the Air India crash, Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, was discharged from Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Wednesday, June 18, six after the deadly crash, which claimed over 270 lives. Notably, Vishwas Kumar was travelling with his brother Ajay Kumar Ramesh to London.
He later attended the cremation of his deceased brother who was flying with him on the same aircraft, officials said as reported by news agency PTI. A video of Vishwas carrying his brother's mortal remains on his shoulders to the cremation ground in Diu surfaced online.
The mortal remains of his brother Ajay were handed over to the family in the early hours of Wednesday after a DNA test confirmed his identity, Ahmedabad Civil Hospital's medical superintendent Dr Rakesh Joshi told reporters.
"Vishwas' family has already arrived here from the United Kingdom. Following his recovery, we gave discharge to Vishwas at 7.30 pm on Tuesday and his brother's mortal remains were also handed over to the family after a DNA match," he said as quoted by PTI.
Vishwas Kumar is a British national of Indian origin. He is a native of Diu.
A day after the crash, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Vishwas at the civil hospital and enquired about his health.
In an interview with Doordarshan, Vishwas said the aircraft had stalled within seconds of taking off from Ahmedabad on its nine-hour journey to London's Gatwick Airport. He was sitting on 11A seat.
As per the lone survivor, seat 11A, was close to the emergency door on the left side of the plane.
“For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. I opened my seat belt and got out of there,” he told Doordarshan.
"Luckily, the portion of the plane where I was seated fell on the ground floor of the hostel premises after the plane crash landed. When I saw that the door of the plane was broken, I told myself that I can try and get out. Eventually, I came out of the plane," he had told reporters.
In a viral video shot by a local immediately after the crash, Kumar can be seen walking towards the ambulance after getting hurt in the crash.
On June 12, Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 230 passengers and 12 crew members onboard crashed into a hostel of a medical college just second after take off from the Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. A total of 279 people lost their lives in the crash.
Among the deceased were 241 passengers and crew onboard the ill-fated plane and people on the ground, including medical students, when the aircraft crashed into the of BJ Medical College campus and burst into a ball of fire.
