The miracle of seat 11A and the tragedy of an Air India crash

Air India flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad airport on the afternoon of 12 June with 242 people on board. Less than a minute later, it had crashed into a medical college about 1km away.

Including those on the ground, at least 270 people were killed. But one passenger miraculously survived. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national sat in seat 11A, was able to walk away from the scene – though, as he found out soon after, his brother had died on board.

The aviation journalist Jeff Wise explains what investigators will be looking at to determine the cause the crash – from the plane’s landing gear, to its wing flaps and possible pilot error. Helen Pidd asks how it was possible that Ramesh was able to escape with his life.