Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the only survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed 260 people in June 2025, has called for “honesty, transparency and answers” a year on from the disaster. The British national spoke of his “significant psychological scars” and financial hardship, as investigators have yet to publish their findings.
Ramesh lost his brother in the crash, in which a Boeing 787 Dreamliner struck a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport. The incident killed 241 people onboard the London-bound flight, including 169 Indian nationals and 52 Britons, as well as 19 people on or near the site. A further 67 were seriously injured.
An Indian preliminary report released 30 days after the crash found that both fuel switches had moved to the “cut-off” position “immediately” after take-off, stopping the fuel supply. Ramesh said there were more “unanswered questions” and that his trauma had not ended on the day of the crash. “I live with the significant psychological scars, the loss of my brother, and the constant unanswered questions around how and why this happened,” he told the Press Association.
Ramesh has received £21,500 from Air India to support his wife and five-year-old son, according to his representative Sanjiv Patel, but continues to face financial hardship. Patel said Ramesh had not been able to return to work normally and his family was living on less than £1,000 a month. He added that “neither Vishwash nor many of the affected families we have spoken to have received any direct contact or tailored support from the UK government.”
Air India confirmed it had met Ramesh and remained in “close contact” with him, saying they were “actively working to ensure that appropriate support continues to be extended to him”. Ramesh is also taking civil action, with Hudgell Solicitors considering claims against potential defendants. Paul McClorry of the firm said, “We are awaiting the findings of the investigations, and we should finally start to see some clarity as to how and why this awful disaster happened.”
