Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was 40 years old when he became the sole survivor among 242 people.
On June 12, 2025, Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 bound for London, crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad, India. Ramesh was traveling in seat 11A, next to the emergency exit. Thousands of kilometers away and 27 years earlier, another man had experienced exactly the same thing: Ruangsak James Loychusak, then 20 years old, was the sole survivor of Thai Airways flight 261, which crashed into a rubber plantation in Surat Thani, Thailand, in 1998, killing 101 people. Loychusak was also seated in 11A, and emerged from the accident with a damaged spine, broken ribs, and a brain hemorrhage.
When he learned of Ramesh’s tragedy, Loychusak shared it on Facebook, and the post received more than 13,000 reactions. Aviation experts consulted by Reuters are categorical: there is no magic seat. A 35-year FAA study of accidents shows that rear middle seats have the lowest fatality rate, at 28%. Science disproves it, but the coincidence still has no easy explanation.
