DOWN IN SECONDS

Brit Viswash is only survivor as jet plummets from sky | 52 UK nationals among victims on their way to Gatwick

- BY MARTIN FRICKER and ANDY LINES

DOZENS of Brits were among hundreds killed when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner fell out of the sky 30 seconds after taking off.

Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171 had just left Ahmedabad airport when it plunged into a medical college in the Indian city.

It was carrying 242 passengers and crew-including 11 children. Air India last night confirmed that 241 were killed, with Brit Viswash Kumar Ramesh the sole survivor.

The total toll passed 290 and was still rising last night as bodies were pulled from the rubble of the college.

Viswash, 40, a textiles worker from Leicester, said: "There was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.

"When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me.

"Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital." Viswash, who was sitting in the emergency exit row in seat 11A, suffered chest, eye and feet injuries.

He and his older brother Ajay, 45, who was killed in the disaster had been in India visiting relatives.

Viswash, who was born in India but has lived in the UK for 20 years, rang his family from his hospital bed to tell them he was "fine".