Ahmedabad: Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British-Indian businessman, emerged as the lone survivor of Air India flight AI-171, which crashed moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday afternoon. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route to London Gatwick, went down at 1:38 pm, ploughing into a multi-storey hostel occupied by medical residents of BJ Medical College in the city’s Meghaninagar area.

The impact killed 229 passengers and 12 crew members on board, in what is now the deadliest single-aircraft crash in India in decades. Five medical students on the ground also lost their lives. Amid the devastation, seat 11A (located in the front row of economy class, near an emergency exit), offered a narrow corridor to survival.

“The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building,” Mr Ramesh told Doordarshan in a televised interview. “There was a small space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.”

His brother, seated across the aisle in 11J, was among those who perished.

Air traffic control logs indicate that the aircraft had lifted off from runway 23 and climbed briefly before the pilot issued a Mayday call. Seconds later, the Dreamliner veered into a steep descent, according to eyewitnesses near the airport boundary. The aircraft then crashed into the hostel’s southern wing.

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a senior pilot with over 8,200 hours of flying experience, and First Officer Clive Kundar, with 1,100 logged hours, were in control of the flight.

Photos from the crash site show the aircraft’s rear and midsections reduced to smouldering wreckage, while the forward fuselage—though severely damaged—had broken off partially before igniting, creating a potential path of escape. It was this split section that allowed Mr Ramesh to get out, even as flames and debris sealed off other parts of the aircraft.

“I don’t know how I came out of it alive,” he told the national broadcaster. “For a while, I thought I was going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. And I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of there. The airhostess and aunty uncle all died before my eyes.”

According to officials, seat 11A was in a part of the fuselage that crashed into the lower level of the hostel building—away from the upper floors that absorbed the brunt of the destruction. On the opposite side, where the jet slammed into a solid wall, no one survived.

“The door must’ve broken on impact,” Mr Ramesh said. “There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don’t know how.”

Mr Ramesh is currently being treated for burns and trauma at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where he remains under 24-hour medical supervision in bed 11 of Ward B7. Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad and city crime branch are guarding the ward.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the hospital early Friday, meeting with Mr Ramesh after surveying the crash site.

“He asked me what happened,” said Mr Ramesh. “I told him I don’t know how I lived. It all happened so fast.”