Plane travel is statistically one of the safest modes of travel. But when things goes wrong, the results are often disastrous.

India has had several major plane crashes in recent decades. In 1996, a Saudi Arabian airlines Boeing 747 taking off from Delhi collided in midair with an arriving Kazakhstan Airline flight, killing all 349 people on both planes.

Viswashkumar Ramesh, 40, the sole survivor of Air India Flight 171, is among the ranks of those spared by fate.