The 11A mystery: Two plane crashes, two lives spared, one seat

A Thai actor-singer who survived a deadly plane crash 27 years ago noticed an eerie coincidence when he got to know about the Air India disaster: the lone survivor was seated in the exact same seat as he was, 11A.

On December 11, 1998, 20-year-old Ruangsak Loychusak cheated death when Thai Airways Flight TG261 stalled and plunged into a swamp while attempting to land in southern Thailand, killing 101 of the 146 people on board.

Ruangsak, now 47, said he had goosebumps after learning that Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national who had a miracle escape in the Air India Flight AI171 crash, was seated in 11A when the plane went down.

In a Facebook post written in Thai, Ruangsak said, “Survivor of a plane crash in India. He sat in the same seat as me. 11A.”

The Boeing Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon. Of the 242 people onboard, Ramesh was the only one to survive.

Ruangsak noted he no longer had his boarding pass from 1998, but said newspaper articles had documented his seat number and survival.

After his brush with death, the actor has, on several occasions, openly addressed the trauma and survivor’s guilt he carried for years. According to reports, he did not fly again for a decade.

Ruangsak described his life since the crash as a “second life,” and offered his condolences to the families affected by the Air India disaster.

The miracle on seat 11A has stunned the public and sparked global fascination. Seated by the emergency exit, Ramesh was thrown from the aircraft on impact and, despite multiple injuries, managed to walk away from the wreckage and into a waiting ambulance.

Speaking from the hospital, Ramesh said he doesn’t know how he survived when everyone else on the doomed plane perished.

"For some time, I thought I was also going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could," he told DD News.

The fascination with Ramesh's narrow escape has led to a spike in interest for emergency exit seats on commercial flights, and seat 11A in particular. Social media is buzzing with posts by people looking to book these seats for their next flight.