Three aircraft crashes & 3 survivors, all in ‘miracle seats’ in row 11— Is it particular?

In what looks like a weird and nearly eerie coincidence, three main airline crashes over the previous few many years, spanning totally different international locations and plane varieties, have one unlikely widespread thread: every had a survivor seated in row 11.

These circumstances have led to a rising on-line mythos round so-called “miracle seats,” with some questioning whether or not seat 11A or its neighbours maintain a mysterious edge in survivability.
Who’re the three survivors seated in row 11?

1. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh – Air India Flight AI117 (2025)

On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI117, a Boeing 787 sure for London, crashed right into a residential space of Ahmedabad simply minutes after takeoff. The catastrophe killed at the least 270 folks, together with 29 on the bottom. However miraculously, one man survived: Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 35-year-old tech entrepreneur and singer primarily based in Thailand.

He was seated in 11A. Rescuers pulled him from the mangled fuselage aware and responsive. He’s now recovering in hospital, with officers calling his survival “unbelievable” contemplating the magnitude of the crash.

2. Ruangsak “James” Loychusak – Thai Airways Flight TG261 (1998)

In December 1998, Thai Airways Flight TG261 crashed whereas making an attempt to land within the southern Thai metropolis of Surat Thani. The flight was working beneath poor climate situations and low visibility when it hit the bottom in need of the runway, broke aside, and burst into flames.

Of the 146 folks onboard, 26 survived. Considered one of them was Ruangsak Loychusak, a well-liked Thai singer and actor, who
occurred to be sitting in seat 11A
. The singer later shared his account publicly, describing how he managed to crawl out of the flaming wreckage.

3. Kumar Nadig – Indian Airways Flight 605 (1990)

On February 14, 1990, Indian Airways Flight 605—a newly inducted Airbus A320—crashed onto a golf course whereas making an attempt to land at Bangalore airport. The aircraft fell in need of the runway, bounced, and finally disintegrated after hitting obstacles. Ninety-two of the 146 onboard had been killed.

Among the many survivors was Kumar Nadig, who was sitting in seat 11C.

Chatting with Deccan Herald in 2010, Nadig stated “Initially, I used to be allotted 10-A seat however after boarding the flight, a younger boy wished to take a seat subsequent to the window. I exchanged the seat and travelled in 11-C seat. All was effectively until touchdown when issues went haywire inside seconds.”
Nadig managed to open the emergency door and rescue a mother-son duo and himself.

Coincidence or one thing extra?

The truth that all three survivors had been sitting in row 11 is unquestionably curious. The burning query now is likely to be: Is row 11 structurally safer? Does its location on the plane make survival extra doubtless?

Not essentially. Luck has a giant function to play.

In Ramesh’s case, his seat on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – 11A, an emergency exit seat close to the entrance of the aircraft and near one of many strongest components of the fuselage generally known as the “wing field”.

Ramesh’s seat had area, relatively than seats, instantly in entrance of it, which can have given him extra room for escape. The Guardian cited Prof John McDermid, Lloyd’s Register chair of security on the College of York, as saying that the area can also have meant that whereas the passengers in entrance of him could have been crushed collectively on influence, he averted that.

“My suspicion is that due to the character of the influence, he was in a powerful a part of the airplane on the entrance fringe of the wing,” McDermid added. “There is not only the fuselage, however the further construction of the wing to guard from the compression of the fuselage.”

“It’s attainable that the influence loosened the door and he may kick it out and get out,” he stated. “The exterior door was solely simply in entrance of him so he didn’t have far to go.”

Prof Ed Galea, an knowledgeable in hearth security and evacuation on the College of Greenwich, defined the function luck performed. “He appears to have been fortunate in that: a) he survived the trauma of the influence, b) he wasn’t severely injured in that crash, and c) he was sitting proper by the No 2 exit. Whether or not he used that or exited by way of a rupture that was shut by, shouldn’t be clear. However he was very near an exit level.”

He stated that whereas different passengers could have additionally survived the influence, they might have been both too injured to evacuate or removed from an exit level to get out in time.

So, emergency seats seem to present folks a greater shot at survival, however not a assure. This nonetheless doesn’t make row 11 seats the “miracle seats”. That’s as a result of not each plane will probably be designed just like the Boeing Dreamliner.

“On this specific occasion, as a result of the passenger was sitting adjoining to the emergency exit, this was clearly the most secure seat on the day,” stated Ron Bartsch, Chairman at Sydney-based AvLaw Aviation Consulting. “However it’s not at all times 11A, it’s simply 11A on this configuration of the Boeing 787.”

With inputs from Reuters