“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” it quoted him as saying in an interview at the hospital where he was being treated.

All but one of those on board an Air India flight bound for London Gatwick Airport that crashed shortly after take-off in western India on Thursday have died, the airline has confirmed.

The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, said even he could not explain how he survived.