The British sole survivor of the Air India crash has still not returned home to his wife and son as he continues to mourn his dead brother, while UK families of the victims say they are still facing ‘silence and indifference’ from authorities.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from Leicester, survived the disaster on June 12 after his London-bound Boeing 787 plane crashed just minutes after taking off from India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad on June 12.
Of the 242 people on board, 241 were killed, including 52 British nationals, alongside 29 on the ground.
Ramesh, who was sitting in seat 11A, walked away with only cuts to his face and some chest injuries, but is said to have been wracked with survivor’s guilt ever since.
His wife revealed he is still coming to terms with the loss of his brother Ajay, who had been sitting across the aisle from him.
Meanwhile, two families who received other victims’ remains in their relatives’ coffins have written an open letter to Yvette Cooper calling on her to demand answers from her Indian counterparts over the blunder, the Times reported.
Mr Ramesh’s wife told the newspaper she had returned to the UK with their young son and the rest of the family remained in India.
She said: ‘(My son) understands but still misses his dad. I’m not sure when he’s coming back to the UK as his treatment is going on.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the British sole survivor of the Air India crash, has still not returned home to his wife and son as he continues to mourn his dead brother
The aircraft struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, 52 of whom were British
‘Everything happened in front of him and the main thing is he lost his brother. He’s not talking to anyone in the media, even in India.’
Aviation lawyer James Healy-Pratt, whose firm Keystone Law is representing more than 20 British families who lost loved ones in the disaster, previously said relatives of one victim found out a casket contained ‘commingled’ remains, while a different family were told a coffin contained the body of someone else, not their loved one.
Miten Patel, the son of Ashok and Shobhana Patel, and Tom Donaghey, brother of Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, wrote to the Foreign Secretary on Friday.
Their letter said: ‘Not only did we lose our family members in this tragedy but have since endured unimaginable pain of their remains being mishandled, mislabelled, commingled and in one devastating case, completely lost without any explanation or any sort of empathetic response regarding this whatsoever from the authorities in India.’
They added: ‘For the last three months, we have tried to seek answers through the proper channels, but we have been met with silence and empty gestures.
‘We cannot mourn in peace until accountability for these wrongs are acknowledged and addressed.’
The family of three British victims previously criticised the lack of transparency on the identification and repatriation of victims.
Relatives of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa said they were confident they had received the correct bodies but ‘the mishandling of such a sensitive process speaks to a wider failure between the British and Indian authorities to act with care, co-ordination and respect’.
Miten Patel, the son of Ashok and Shobhana Patel (pictured) wrote to the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling on her to demand answers from her Indian counterparts
Ramesh is wracked with guilt as he faces the reality of being the only person out of 242 passengers and crew to survive the crash. Above, Indian Prime Minister Modi meeting the miracle survivor
This photo shared on X by India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shows the site of the crash after the incident on June 12
‘We are deeply troubled by what this means for other families who may still be searching for certainty and closure,’ they added.
Mr Healy-Pratt is investigating the identification mistakes but is also representing families at inquests, investigating the causes of the accident, taking High Court legal action in England against Air India and taking action against Boeing in the US courts.
It is understood no blame is being put on any UK agency for the blunders, he said during a previous interview in July.
‘We know that they were not allowed anywhere near the DNA identification chain of custody link to the caskets,’ he said. ‘That was the Indian authorities, that’s what we understand.
‘Somebody has to take responsibility in India for this massive screw-up and then they actually have to ensure that they can give proper assurances to the families that the job has been completed and done properly,’ he added.
His firm has demanded a written explanation from Air India, including on the involvement of their contractors Kenyon International Emergency Services.
A preliminary report into the incident from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found both of the plane’s fuel switches moved to the cut-off position immediately after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine.
It has sparked questions over whether the crash was deliberate.
Ramesh carried his brother’s coffin at a funeral ceremony in Gujarat after the tragedy
He was later seen crying in anguish and had to be carried away from the scene
Ramesh, who has been dubbed the ‘miracle man’, ‘God’s child’, and a ‘symbol of hope’ by Indian media, previously said he feels ‘terrible’ he could not save his brother and feels tormented with guilt over his death.
His relatives in India previously spoke of how he struggled to sleep at night and was haunted by nightmares where he sees ‘everyone die’.
Ramesh had tried to book two seats next to each other on flight AI171.
But by the time he came to make the reservation, he was forced to pick two seats apart from each other in row 11.
Ramesh told The Sun at the time: ‘If we had been sat together we both might have survived.
‘I tried to get two seats together but someone had already got one. Me and Ajay would have been sitting together.
‘But I lost my brother in front of my eyes. So now I am constantly thinking ‘Why can’t I save my brother?’.
Ramesh carried his brother’s coffin at a ceremony in Gujarat in June. He was later seen crying in anguish and had to be taken away.
Families of the victims have said they have suffered ‘unimaginable pain’ and feel ‘completely lost without any explanation or empathetic response from the authorities in India’. Pictured: Relatives mourn during a prayer meeting in India in July
He was sitting next to one of the plane’s emergency exits and was able to crawl through a hole in the twisted fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Footage exclusively obtained by Daily Mail showed Ramesh try to return to the site of the inferno to save his brother.
Ramesh told the first emergency service worker on site: ‘My family member is in there, my brother and he’s burning to death. I have to save him.’
Emergency worker Satinder Singh Sandhu said: ‘I walked nearer to Mr Ramesh, grabbed him by the arm and led him away to a waiting ambulance.
‘I had no idea that he was a passenger on the plane and thought he was a resident of the hostel or a passer-by.
‘He was very disoriented and shocked and was limping. There was also blood on his face, but he was able to speak.
‘He told the paramedics that he was flying to London when the plane fell and that he wanted to go back to save his family.’
