Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national, appears to be the only survivor of Air India flight 171, which crashed with 242 people aboard.

There have been cases of a very small number of survivors in very serious accidents, but it is "very rare" for there to be only one, a professor told Newsweek.

It seemed impossible, but shortly after news broke that an Air India flight had crashed in the city of Ahmedabad, video started circulating on social media showing a man walking from the scene in a bloodstained shirt.