The mystery behind seat 11A: Two plane crashes, two survivors, one strange coincidence

The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying 242 people on board, including former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani (Image: X)

Twenty-seven years after surviving a deadly plane crash that killed 101 passengers, a Thai singer named Ruangsak James Loychusak has shared an eerie coincidence with reference to the latest Air India tragedy. He was stunned to learn that the only survivor of the Ahmedabad plane crash had been seated at the very same seat that he had when he survived the fatal crash in 1998 – 11A.

Loychusak, now 47, was on Thai Airways flight TG261 from Bangkok to Surat Thani when it stalled and plunged into a swamp during its landing attempt, killing 101 people. Loychusak was among the few who managed to survive.

Reports of the recent Air India plane crash which was bound for London caught his attention – especially when he learned that the sole survivor named Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was seated on 11A. Taking to social media platform Facebook, Ruangsak wrote, “Survivor of a plane crash in India. He sat in the same seat as me. 11A.”

He said he had goosebumps after learning about the sole survivor from the Ahmedabad tragedy, according to a report by Mail Online.

While the singer does not have his ticket from the ill-fated flight, he said newspaper reports that time had documented his seat number.

“I had difficulty flying for 10 years after the crash. I would struggle breathing, even though the air circulation was normal. I avoided speaking to anyone and always stared outside the window, blocking anyone from closing it to maintain my sense of safety,” the Mail Online quoted him as saying.

He further said he could still remember the sounds, smells, and even the taste of the water in the swamp the plane crashed into – as he recalled how he lived his ‘second life’ post the devastating crash.

The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying 242 people on board, including former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. It crashed into a medical college complex in the Meghaninagar area moments after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met the lone survivor as he reached Ahmedabad to take a stock of the situation.

Recalling the tragic incident, Ramesh said that for a moment he thought he was going to die. Speaking to DD News, Vishwash said the crash happened within 10 seconds of the plane taking off. “It felt like the plane got stuck. Then suddenly, the lights came on, and right after that, it accelerated — and then it crashed," he recalled.

He said that the door near him broke, following which he saw that the ground at that side was level and managed to escape through there.