- Two men survived deadly plane crashes nearly 30 years apart while seated in the same seat, 11A.
- Both faced severe trauma and survivor’s guilt but lived to share their stories.
- The coincidence sparked global fascination, boosting interest in emergency exit seats like 11A.
In a story that feels more like fate than coincidence, two strangers—born in different eras, raised in different countries, and living entirely separate lives—found themselves bound by the same mysterious detail: Seat 11A. One escaped a plane crash in Thailand in 1998. The other survived a fiery wreck in India just days ago. The uncanny link between them is sending chills down spines across the globe.
And it all comes down to one seat.
Separated by Time, United by Survival
Back in December 1998, a 20-year-old Thai actor and singer named Ruangsak Loychusak boarded Thai Airways Flight TG261. The plane was on approach to Surat Thani Airport in southern Thailand when disaster struck. The aircraft, already struggling in poor weather conditions, stalled and slammed into a swamp just short of the runway.
Out of the 146 passengers and crew onboard, 101 lost their lives. The images of the wreckage were horrifying—twisted metal, charred luggage, and smoke rising from the thick jungle. Somehow, Ruangsak made it out alive. He was sitting in seat 11A, right by the emergency exit.
It was a moment that would define him forever.
“I was given a second life that day,” Ruangsak once told reporters. But survival didn’t come without scars. He didn’t step foot on another plane for ten years. Nightmares and guilt followed him. The thought of being among the few who lived when so many others perished never truly left him.
Now, 27 years later, Ruangsak stumbled across a headline that stopped him cold. A young man named Vishwash Kumar Ramesh had survived a horrific crash in India. And he had been seated in—of all places—11A.
The Ahmedabad Tragedy: One Survivor, One Seat
It happened on a Thursday afternoon. Air India Flight AI171 had barely taken off from Ahmedabad when something went terribly wrong. The Boeing Dreamliner, carrying 242 passengers, suffered a critical failure and went down in a fiery explosion not far from the runway.
By the time emergency responders arrived, smoke was billowing into the sky. The charred remains of the plane lay scattered, and the smell of burning fuel hung in the air. It was a devastating scene—almost no one had made it.
Except for one.
Miraculously, 23-year-old British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was alive. Battered, bruised, and in shock, he had been ejected from the aircraft on impact, landing far enough from the flames to survive. With broken bones and serious injuries, he somehow managed to crawl toward help.
From his hospital bed, Ramesh spoke to Indian media.
“I thought I was dead,” he said, his voice shaking. “But when I opened my eyes and realized I was alive, I did everything I could to get out.”
He had been sitting in seat 11A.
A Chilling Connection Across Decades
The news sent shivers down Ruangsak’s spine. Though he no longer had the boarding pass from his own near-death experience, newspaper articles had long confirmed his seat assignment. The actor immediately took to Facebook to share the eerie discovery.
“Survivor of a plane crash in India,” he wrote. “He sat in the same seat as me. 11A.”
He also offered heartfelt condolences to the families of those lost in the Air India crash. His words were tender but filled with the weight of someone who had lived through the unthinkable.
And then, the internet took over.
Social Media Explodes with Speculation
Within hours, the tale of “The Miracle Seat” was trending. TikTok videos, tweets, and Instagram posts flooded social media. Some marveled at the coincidence. Others saw something deeper—was it luck? Fate? Divine intervention?
One user tweeted, “If I don’t get seat 11A on my next flight, I’m not going.”
Another joked, “Is 11A blessed or cursed?”
Some were less lighthearted. Family members of victims from both crashes shared their pain, reminding the public that while miracles make headlines, the tragedy remains. Hundreds of lives were lost across these two crashes. The survivors are rare exceptions to stories usually filled with sorrow.
Yet people couldn’t stop talking. Bookings for emergency exit seats—especially 11A—reportedly surged on several travel platforms. Airlines haven’t commented, but insiders say there’s growing curiosity around the row.
More Than Just a Number?
Experts and aviation buffs have weighed in on the phenomenon. While most agree it’s purely coincidental, they acknowledge that exit rows do offer better chances of survival—especially in the event of an emergency evacuation.
But 11A specifically? That’s where belief, mystery, and human hope take over.
What are the chances that two survivors, nearly three decades apart, would sit in the exact same spot and live through two of the deadliest crashes in their regions?
It’s the kind of twist you might expect in a novel or movie—not real life.