Hyderabad: In a deeply emotional moment amid the wreckage of the Air India tragedy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the lone survivor of the crash, British national Vishwash Ramesh Kumar, currently recovering at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
The Boeing A-171, carrying 242 passengers, crashed near Ahmedabad in what has become one of the deadliest aviation disasters in recent Indian history. Of those on board, 241 lost their lives. Ramesh, by sheer chance or miracle, was the only one who made it out alive.
Modi, who had earlier surveyed the crash site and reviewed the rescue operations, arrived at the hospital in the afternoon. He sat beside Ramesh, who is still in a fragile state, and spoke briefly with doctors and the survivor’s attendants. Hospital sources said the Prime Minister spent a few minutes with him, asking after his health and offering words of strength.
Witnesses at the hospital described the meeting as quiet and intimate. “He looked directly into the patient’s eyes and said, ‘You’ve lived through something few could’,” one nurse recounted.
Ramesh’s survival has stunned many. Officials involved in the rescue operations said his seat had been flung clear of the fuselage just before the aircraft exploded. He was found unconscious but breathing, several metres away from the main wreckage.
The Prime Minister’s visit to the hospital was not announced in advance, and no media were present inside the ward. But those who saw the brief interaction said it was a moment of rare poignancy amid the grief that has gripped Gujarat and the nation at large.