A year after walking away from the wreckage of Air India Flight AI-171, the only person among 260 on board to survive, Viswashkumar Ramesh says the world sees his survival but not the weight he carries every day.
"People see that I've survived, but they don't always see the challenges that continue behind closed doors. I still struggle with sleep, anxiety and difficult memories. A year on, I'm still trying to rebuild my life and support my family as best I can," Ramesh said, as reported by PTI.
On June 12 last year, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner operating as AI-171 crashed into a hostel complex of a medical college in Meghaninagar, Ahmedabad, shortly after takeoff, killing 241 people on board and 19 on the ground.
Ramesh, a British national seated in row 11A, slipped out through a shattered emergency exit and was seen on widely circulated footage limping away from the smouldering wreckage, bloodstained and in shock.
His brother Ajay was among those killed, seated just a few rows away. Speaking to BBC News five months after the crash, Ramesh said: "I'm luckiest man, but also, I lost everything. My brother, for me, I lost my brother."
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He had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and described withdrawing entirely from family life. "Now I'm alone. I just sit in my room alone, not talking with my wife, my son. I just like to be alone in my house," he told the BBC.
On the first anniversary, Ramesh said the struggle was far from over. "I'm grateful to be alive, but survival is only part of the story. What I've faced since then has been far more difficult than I can put into words," PTI quoted him as saying.
Air India confirmed that representatives from the airline and the Tata Group had met with Ramesh and remained in contact with him, saying the company was "actively working to ensure that appropriate support continues to be extended to him.", BBC reported.
Families of victims marked the first anniversary on Friday still without a final investigation report, waiting for answers about how India's deadliest aviation disaster in decades came to pass.
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