New Delhi: Two people sitting in 11A share a ghastly coincidence: one is a survivor of a 1998 Thai Airways flight disaster, and the other is a survivor of an Ahmedabad plane crash in 2025.
Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed at 12:35 am on June 12, spilling a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad’s Meghani Nagar only 33 seconds after takeoff. The only survivor, a 40-year-old British national named Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, managed to escape the wrecked plane out of 242 passengers and crew. He took seat 11A, which was an exit row adjacent to the left wing. Ramesh sustained simple injuries, and from his hospital bed, he described his survival as “a miracle.”.
On December 11, 1998, 27 years earlier, Thai Airways Flight TG261, an Airbus A310, stalled and fell into a swamp while trying to land in Surat Thani, Thailand. Out of 146 people on board, 101 died. It has since emerged that 20-year-old Thai singer-actor Ruangsak Loychusak survived, sitting in seat 11A, and after hearing Ramesh’s escape, Loychusak wrote on his Facebook page: “Survivor of a plane crash in India. He took the seat next to mine. 11A. Goosebumps.”
Speaking to Indian media, Ramesh recounted how the Air India plane seemed to “stall” in the sky prior to its descent. He managed to squeeze through a gap in the broken emergency door by his seat. Loychusak, now 47, said he could not fly for 10 years after surviving the crash in 1998. He described his survival as a ‘second chance’ and offered his condolences to the families of the Ahmedabad victims.
Aviation experts dismiss the 11A connection as mere coincidence. Aviation consultant Ron Bartsch told Reuters, “The Boeing 787 configuration is simply designated as 11A.” Each accident is different.” In contrast, only two of the 448 people on board the Air India flight survived, with 241 people confirmed dead on the plane and at least another 33 on the ground. There were several survivors in the crash of Thai Airways.
The uncanny ability of seat 11A, along with these two survivors, ignited the international stir that has been circulating all over the Internet since. The investigations into the Air India crash are on, with the black box found and the high-level probe.
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