In UK, survivor's kin mourn loss of brother

The photo of Viswash Kumar Ramesh, bruised and battered, limping away from the debris of the Air India flight that crashed seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, has become one of the defining images of the aviation disaster.

- Danish Khan [e-mail]

LONDON:

Ramesh's photo and the story of his miraculous escape, along with those of the mangled Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, the charred bodies and the crumbling hostel building that the jet crashed into, were splashed on the front pages of newspapers in the UK.

Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, who is the lone survivor of the crash in which all other passengers—241 including 12 crew members—perished.

"I don't believe how I survived. For some time, I thought I was also going to die," the 38-year-old Ramesh told reporters from his hospital bed in India.

At his home in Leicester, central England, however, Ramesh's family oscillated between joy at his escape and grief at the loss of his brother. "We are happy Viswash has been saved, but on the other hand we are just heartbroken about Ajay," Hiren Kantilal, Ramesh's cousin, said.

Ajay was also on the same flight seated on IIJ while Ramesh was on IIA. Their younger brother, Nayan, said the two were on the return journey home after a vacation in India. Ramesh, who ran a confectionary business in London since 2003, is survived by his wife and their four-year-old son.

A spokesperson from Downing Street confirmed that the UK Foreign Office has been in contact with Ramesh to offer consular support.