By Naomi CantonA year after limping out shell-shocked from the AI 171 plane with towering flames and black smoke billowing behind him, the sole survivor Viswashkumar Ramesh is still struggling with physical pain, bereavement, financial difficulties and psychological problems. The anniversary is proving a “very difficult” time for him. He is dreading it.Viswashkumar (39) had returned to the UK on Sep 15 after surviving the crash to be with his son, Divang, now five, who was starting school for the first time and his wife, Hiral, and also to get medical treatment.The media at the time made out he was the luckiest man alive. But it never felt like that to him. His younger brother, Ajay (35), who he had run the family fishing business in Diu with, was sat on the plane with him and did not get out alive. Nor did any of the other passengers and crew. Viswashkumar only escaped because his seat, 11A, was next to an emergency exit.“For me, the hardest thing is knowing that my brother isn’t here,” he told TOI from his two-bedroomed terraced house in Leicester this week. “We were together that day and I still think about him every day. The anniversary is a reminder of that loss for all of us. As grateful as I am to be alive, a part of me was lost that day too. What I’ve had to live through since then has been far more difficult than I can put into words.”Six months after the crash, Viswashkumar had relayed to TOI how he never left his room and did not really interact with his son, family or friends or leave the house. One year on, he is still not able to take Divang to school or do the shopping. Hiral has to do that and care for Viswashkumar.But there is a flicker of hope. Although he still suffers flashbacks and ruminates in his room, he is able to spend a little more time interacting with his family. But he still does not meet his friends.Sanjiv Patel, a Leicer-based executive coach, business adviser and Hindu community leader, has been Viswashkumar’s mentor from day one, helping him with paperwork, his legal battle and getting medical help as well as shielding him from the huge media interest in him. He does all this for free.Together they have instructed specialist law firm Hudgell Solicitors to represent his interests.Viswashkumar has received £21,500 interim compensation from Air India so far.“We’ve repeatedly asked to meet the chief executive of Air India but that has not happened,” Patel said. “We recently met with executives of Air India and the Tata Group and raised the issue of the lack of financial support so far; that was a constructive meeting. The reality is that Viswashkumar and his family have been badly hit financially. We are in ongoing discussions with Air India about the support and they have, since we last spoke, have agreed to, so far, cover his private medical expenses. It’s an ongoing conversation. Our focus is very much on his rehab and then exploring where that takes us. It’s an uncertain road ahead. I was hoping for a whole blanket around the family to make sure they don’t have to worry about things on a day-to-day basis. Viswashkumar himself wants Air India to see how else they can help him and that is part of our ongoing conversation but at least we have started that dialogue now. It took a long time to come. There was no engagement before.”Viswashkumar has been fully medically assessed and is receiving different types of treatments – for his burns, for other physical injuries and for his psychological trauma. “We are looking at all ways of supporting him,” Patel explained.” We are exploring with psychiatrists what forms of treatments he could have.”Viswashkumar still has flashbacks. He can walk with less discomfort now, but the impact of the crash on his body and then the trauma has compounded the physical injuries. He is slowly getting better but is still unable to drive.“He is trying his best to deal with the loss of Ajay. The flashbacks are still there and are still challenging – he has good days and harder days. The good days he still has flashbacks and still has difficulty sleeping – it is just relative,” Patel said.Viswashkumar still doesn’t feel comfortable speaking to anyone, even within the family, about what actually happened on that day – apart from talking about the pain of what has happened to him and trying to come to terms with it.“There is a big empty space for him and his family going forwards, He is thankfully, slowly, making progress out of the terrible place he was in, but it is slow,” Patel said.“He knows he has to take back that father and husband role. He can, at least, now spend a little more time in that space,” he said. But he said Viswashkumar was far from fulfilling those roles in a way anyone else would understand.“He is more present around them as much as he can be. He is mindful of how that impacts everyone as well. He has a lot going through his mind,” Patel said.“I hope we can get him to a place where he can work again. That’s one of the reasons I am helping as I want to get them back to some sense of normality and help him build himself up again,” Patel said.“The British govt has not reached out to him to help. The support they had from the Indian govt and the people on ground at the time, they were grateful for it and now they are trying to put their lives back together in the UK and the future looks very uncertain and the family is struggling,” Patel said.What made things worse was that Hiral’s universal credit was stopped because she went to India after the tragedy.“They have got it back, but it’s limited,” Patel said. “It’s very little – less than £1,000 a month they have to run the house on. There is no income from the fishing business in Diu. “The entire extended family in Diu and Leicester derived their income from that business which had until now continued to expand. They own the fishing boats, which Viswashkumar has now named Ajay.“Viswashkumar ’s brother, Sunny, has been trying to run it, but it’s been losing money all season,” Patel said. “They don’t even know where that will end.” Ajay and Viswashkumar would spend eight to nine months in Diu and then around the time the fishing season ended, they would come back to the UK for three months and spend time with family in Leicester. It was because they were both returning to the UK for that break in the UK that they both were on that fateful 12 June flight.“They are a very close-knit family, and they operated as one family, so the financial dependency and source of income was this fishing business and so with that gone, there is an emotional and financial aspect. This has shaken everyone in the family, not just Viswashkumar . It really is tough on them. When you see how close they were, the real impact across the whole family is heart-breaking,” Patel added.“As much as we are on this journey of trying to support and heal him, this anniversary coming up has clearly been playing on his mind for a while and how he will react and how he will be on the day is anybody’s guess. My focus is to get him through that. If we had the crash investigation report that would be helpful. The importance is the clarity – that is what is playing on his mind –he is looking for something to make some sort of sense of what happened,” Patel explained.Viswashkumar met representatives of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in Ahmedabad on 29 March 2026 in connection with the official investigation into the disaster.“We will be examining every detail of the air accident investigations and expecting all parties involved to act appropriately to any findings of fault, failure or negligence,” said solicitor Paul McClorry, of Hudgell Solicitors.“Lessons clearly must be learnt, and for that to happen there needs to be complete transparency and a willingness to accept responsibility.”An Air India spokesperson said: “Air India remains committed to supporting every individual impacted by the AI171 tragedy with care and compassion. While we cannot discuss the specifics of any individual case, representatives from Air India and the Tata Group met with Mr. Ramesh and had a constructive and meaningful engagement. The discussions provided insight into Mr. Ramesh’s needs and concerns, enabling a clearer understanding of how best to support him. We remain in close contact with Mr. Ramesh and his representatives and are actively working to ensure that appropriate support continues to be extended to him.”
