Crash of an Air India Boeing 787: here's how the sole survivor probably managed to escape, “he occupied a ‘’choice seat‘

Only one person survived the plane crash in India on Thursday. But how did this miraculous man survive?

One person has survived the crash of Air India's London-bound 787, which crashed on Thursday with 242 passengers and crew after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, India, a health official told AFP. As of Friday morning, 265 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, but the death toll could rise.

According to the Hindustan Times, the survivor is a 40-year-old British man. He has been identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. This information has been confirmed by the British media outlet Sky News. The man was seated in seat 11A and is currently being treated in hospital.

How did this man survive such an accident? According to Jean Colard, aeronautics expert and consultant for Whitestone, interviewed by La Première, “he was probably seated near the emergency door, where there's legroom. It's likely that the emergency door exploded and threw him out of the plane, because he was occupying that 'prime spot' where the door gave way. And he was able to get out in a haggard state, of course, because you can imagine the shock. He's a miracle worker.

Are some seats “safer” than others in the event of a plane crash? For Waldo Cerdan, former pilot and aeronautics specialist, also present on La Première this Friday morning, it's not so obvious. “Statistically, the tail of the plane is the part that remains the most whole. There isn't really room, but maybe the tail...”