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The captain of the ill-fated Air India Flight 171 is being hailed as a hero after reportedly steering the aircraft away from a densely populated residential area moments before it crashed, potentially saving dozens of lives.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, a seasoned pilot with over 8,200 hours of flight experience, was at the controls of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner when it went down shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday. The aircraft was en route to London Gatwick when it suffered a sudden dual engine failure.
Despite limited time, Captain Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder issued a mayday call. With just over a minute before impact, the pilots managed to guide the powerless aircraft slightly off course, avoiding a direct hit on nearby apartment blocks and instead crashing in an open green space. The plane exploded on impact, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board.
Tragically, several medical students were among the victims, after the aircraft’s landing gear and rear fuselage clipped a dormitory near B.J. Medical College and Civil Hospital.
Residents of the surrounding apartments credited Captain Sabharwal’s last-second maneuver for saving their lives.
“Thanks to the pilot Captain Sabharwal, we survived. He’s a hero. It is because of him we are alive,” said 28-year-old local resident Jahanvi Rajput in an interview with The Sun. “The green space next to us was visible to him, and that’s where he went.”
Chancal Bai, a 50-year-old mother of two, added: “If the plane had crashed into this residential area, there would have been hundreds more victims.”
In a poignant revelation, a local lawmaker shared that Captain Sabharwal had recently confided in his elderly father about plans to retire from flying to care for him full-time. Dilip Lande, a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, visited the grieving 82-year-old father at their shared home in Powai, Mumbai.
“Only a few days ago, Captain Sabharwal told his father that he would be quitting his job to look after him full-time,” Lande told reporters.
The captain’s father, a retired official from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), was said to be inconsolable upon hearing the news of his son’s death.
“Whenever he flew out, Sumeet would ask us to keep an eye on his father. He has now been left devastated,” neighbours told The Hindustan Times.
