‘Take care': Pilot's last words before doomed Air India flight
Speculation has mounted about Captain Sumeet Sabharwal after the probe into the June 12 crash indicated switches controlling fuel flow to the plane's engines were turned off shortly after takeoff.
Some experts who have reviewed the initial report from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) believe a pilot on board moved the switches.
Fingers have been pointed at Captain Sabharwal because his younger co-pilot, Clive Kunder, would have had his 'hands full' while flying the plane.
It has led to claims the tragedy was a case of 'suicide by captain', with Sky News aviation expert Captain Byron Bailey saying the switches were turned off at the 'perfect time' to cause a crash.
But a new report from The Telegraph has revealed Captain Sabharwal's last words to a security guard at his apartment complex suggested no hint of the looming disaster.
'Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon,' he reportedly said.
The security guard, Sunil Lokhande, told the UK newspaper: 'He smiled and went away. You'd never guess he carried any sadness inside.'
Friends have also revealed Captain Sabharwal was considering an early retirement from flying in order to care of his elderly father, who lived at the same apartment block.
'His father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan,' former colleague Neil Pais said.
Mr Pais said Captain Sabharwal had absolutely 'no airs about himself' and 'always (wore) a smile when he spoke to you'.
'I never once saw him raise his voice or lose his temper. And yet he never compromised on work or safety,' he said.
'If there was an issue, he'd point it out, but always in the nicest possible way.'
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flying from Ahmedabad in western India to London plummeted shortly after takeoff, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.
The AAIB's report found that both engine fuel 'cut off' switches flipped to the off position almost simultaneously, starving the engines of fuel and causing the plane to lose thrust and crash. It also suggested microchip malfunction caused the issue, not human error.
The first was moved three seconds after lift off and the other one second later, the AAIB report found, before being turned back on a further 10 seconds later.
But an assessment by US officials of the AAIB report and black-box material, according to the Wall Street Journal, pointed the finger at a pilot.
Captain Bailey told Sky News the co-pilot Mr Kunder would have been occupied flying the plane, leaving the senior pilot monitoring the flight – Captain Sabharwal – as the only one capable of moving the mechanical switches.
'They require absolute physical effort to lift the switch up, raise it over … and back down. So it had to be done by one of the pilots,' he said.
'What is very obvious to pilots is, three seconds after lift off is the perfect time to have done this.'
Campbell Wilson, chief executive of Air India, last week told staff in a memo the investigation was 'far from over'.
Mr Wilson said 'over the past 30 days, we've seen an ongoing cycle of theories, allegations, rumours and sensational headlines, many of which have later been disproven'.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association said on Sunday it was 'deeply disturbed by speculative narratives' surrounding the Air India crash 'particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide'.
'There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage,' it said in a statement, adding, 'it is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved.'
'To casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession,' it said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
16 hours ago
- ABC News
Teacher dies saving students from Bangladesh jet crash inferno
A teacher is being praised for her bravery after losing her life saving students when a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into her school and erupted in a fireball. Maherin Chowdhury, a 46-year-old English teacher, went back again and again into a burning classroom to rescue her students on Monday when a F-7 BGI Bangladesh Air Force crashed into the school, trapping them in fire and debris. Even as her own clothes were engulfed in flames, she continued, her brother, Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, told the Reuters news agency by telephone. Ms Chowdhury died on Monday after suffering near-total burns to her body. She is survived by her husband and two teenage sons. "When her husband called her, pleading with her to leave the scene and think of her children, she refused, saying, 'They are also my children. They are burning. How can I leave them?'" Mr Chowdhury said. At least 29 people, most of them children, were killed in the incident. The military said the aircraft suffered mechanical failure. He added that he found out about his sister's act of bravery when he visited the hospital and met students she rescued. The jet had taken off from a nearby air base on a routine training mission, the military said. After experiencing mechanical failure, the pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from populated areas, but it crashed into the campus. The pilot was among those killed. "When the plane crashed and fire broke out, everyone was running to save their lives. She [Ms Chowdhury] ran to save others," Khadija Akter, the headmistress of the school's primary section, told Reuters. She was buried on Tuesday in her home district of Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh. Students from the school and others from nearby colleges protested as two government officials visited the crash site. The students demanded an accurate death toll and shouted: "Why did our brothers die? We demand answers!" Elsewhere in the capital, hundreds of protesting students, some of them waving sticks, broke through the main gate of the federal government secretariat, demanding the resignation of the education adviser, according to local TV footage. Witnesses said police with batons charged towards them, fired tear gas and used sound grenades to disperse the crowd, leaving dozens injured. Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Talebur Rahman said the officers had to use tear gas to disperse the protesters. He said he did not have information about the number of injured. The protesting students called for those killed and injured to be named, the decommissioning of what they said were old and risky jets, and a change in air force training procedures. A statement from the press office of Bangladesh's interim administrator said the government, the military, school and hospital authorities were working together to publish a list of victims. It also said the air force would be told not to operate training aircraft in populated areas. The F-7 BGI is the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group, an open-source intelligence company. Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. The Chengdu F-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet era MiG-21. Reuters
ABC News
17 hours ago
- ABC News
British lawyer says families received wrong remains of Air India crash victims
Relatives of a British victim killed in last month's Air India crash received a casket that contained mixed remains, a lawyer representing several families says. The family of a separate victim received the remains of another person, according to James Healy-Pratt, who is representing 20 British families who lost loved ones in the disaster. A total of 241 people on board the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner died when the plane crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad in western India on June 12. The toll included 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals. Several people on the ground also died while only one passenger, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived the crash. Mr Healy-Pratt told the Press Association news agency that the return of victims' remains had been marred by serious errors, which had been identified following a probe by a British coroner. "In the first two caskets that were repatriated, in one of the caskets, there was co-mingling of DNA which did not relate to the deceased in that casket or the casket that accompanied it," he said. The lawyer added the coroner was then "able to determine that one particular loved one was not at all who the family thought they were". Miten Patel, whose mother, Shobhana Patel, died along with her husband in the disaster, told the BBC that "other remains" were found in her casket after her body was returned to Britain. "People were tired and there was a lot of pressure. But there has to be a level of responsibility that you're sending the right bodies to the UK," he told the BBC. The Daily Mail newspaper first reported two cases in which the wrong remains were apparently returned to families in Britain. India's foreign ministry said all remains "were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased". "We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue," the statement added. AFP
SBS Australia
2 days ago
- SBS Australia
At least 27 killed in Bangladesh fighter jet crash
At least 27 people have been killed after a Bangladesh air force training jet crashed into a college and school campus in Dhaka, officials say, with 88 people, including children, being treated in hospital. The aircraft crashed soon after it took off from an airbase in the capital on a routine training mission. The military said the plane experienced a mechanical failure. Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser on health, told reporters 27 people had died and 88 were admitted to hospital with burn injuries after the crash. The government announced a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast and special prayers at all places of worship. The pilot was among those killed in the incident, the military said, adding a committee had been formed to investigate what happened. The jet, a F-7 BGI, is the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. Shahbul, father of a missing girl student, cries after a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school campus shortly after takeoff in Dhaka. Source: AAP / Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP Videos of the aftermath of the crash showed a big fire near a lawn emitting a thick plume of smoke into the sky as crowds watched from a distance. Firefighters sprayed water on the mangled remains of the plane, which appeared to have rammed into the side of a building, damaging iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure, footage filmed by Reuters showed. Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn unit at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said: "A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital." Images from the scene also showed people screaming and crying as others tried to comfort them. "When I was picking [up] my kids and went to the gate, I realised something came from behind ... I heard an explosion. When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke," said Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school.
