Lonely survivor lying on emotional funeral rest

The British man was the only survivor of the Air India plane crash last week, helping his brother rest at a funeral in western India.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh’s brother Ajay is also in the flight of fate, but does not survive the tragedy.

A noticeably frustrated Ramesh is one of the bearers of the pall, who brings his elder brother’s coffin to the crematorium in Diu town, his arms and face are still covered with white bandages. I spent most of the past five days in the hospital.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in London crashed for a few seconds after taking off from the West Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday. At least 270 people were killed, most of them passengers.

Mr. Ramesh’s mother walked with the other mourners in a blue saree and the coffin as he held the coffin on his right shoulder.

Several people in the town – lost 14 other people to crash – attended the funeral even though the rain stirred up the parade.

No one knows how Mr. Ramesh managed to survive. One of the first responders on the scene told the BBC that he even tried to return to the blazing plane to find his brother.

In a new video that appeared earlier this week, ambulance driver Satinder Singh Sandhu, the man who saw Mr Ramesh safe, walked out of the crash scene, flames and smoke pouring into the air behind him.

Sandhu, director of emergency ambulance services in Ahmedabad, said he had no idea who he was helping or that Mr Ramesh had fled the plane. He didn’t find out until later that day that the man was the only survivor of the crash.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, 40, occupies 11A seats in flight. His brother was reportedly sitting in several seats.

All other passengers and crew were killed, and nearly 30 people died on the ground after the plane hit and hit the doctor’s hotel.

But Mr. Ramesh miraculously survived and managed to leave the wreckage through the opening of the fuselage.

The new video shows Sandhu, wearing a blue turban, walks to Mr. Ramesh and guides him to safety.

Mr Sandhu said he was having lunch with his colleagues when he first noticed “the fire and the smoke poured into the sky.”

“At first, we thought it might have been a car accident or a cylinder explosion. Soon, we learned that it was a plane crash. I immediately instructed my team to bring an ambulance and rush to the scene.”

Speaking to the BBC Gujarati, Mr Sandu said he just wanted to do his job. Over his decades of career, he said he has encountered many challenging situations.

But what surprised him that day was that Mr. Ramesh had been trying to return to the crash site after being rescued.

“He didn’t know what he was doing. He kept going in and out of the complex. We told him to stop and drag him to the ambulance so he could receive medical services.”

“That’s what he told me, his relatives were trapped inside and he wanted to save him. We didn’t speak after that.”

Mr Ramesh later told DD News in India that he was trying to find Ahj.

At the scene, Mr. Sand found a security guard who appeared to be injured in the impact. His clothes were partially burned, and Mr. Sand helped him first.

“I’ve also seen a woman. She screamed in fear. Her son killed a tea stall in the crash.”

A moment later, he saw Mr. Ramesh appear from the crash site in a white shirt.

Mr Sandhu said he had a wound on his face and his arms burned and looked frustrated.

“At that time, we didn’t know who the injured was. I think he was one of the doctors living in the university. Later, when we saw the news, we realized he was the only survivor of the crash.”

Mr. Ramesh told someone during a video call that his relative was at the crash site, Chirag, a member of Mr. Sander’s ambulance team, told PTI News.

The first responders treated his injuries and drove him to the trauma center in a nearby hospital.

Mr Ramesh said in an interview with DD News that he couldn’t believe he was still alive and came out of the wreckage.

“For a moment, I felt like I was going to die, but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realized I was still alive.

“I still can’t believe my way of living. I walked out of the rubble.”

The cause of the crash is not yet known. Officials tried to decode the sound of the cockpit and the flight data recorder (collectively known as the black box) recovered from the wreckage to piece together things.

Other reports by Zoya Mateen in Delhi

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