‘Didn't know what to do': Students were eating lunch when plane struck dining hall
Intern Mohit Chavda said he was halfway through his meal of lentils, cabbage and bread when the disaster struck.
'We only heard a blast,' he said. 'Then we just saw the dust and smoke coming inside with force.'
In the aftermath of India's worst aviation disaster in decades, the ripped-off tail of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner could be seen jutting out of the building as firefighters quelled the flames. In the dining hall, lunch plates were left half-finished.
While police officials have put the death toll from the crash at 269 people, they have cautioned that a final figure will take time to ascertain. Many of the bodies are charred and are being identified and counted through DNA testing.
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew aboard the jet, which was headed to London, are confirmed dead, the airline said. Rescue personnel at the site, as well as doctors and security officials, suggested that at least three dozen other people had been killed on the ground.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
20 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Take care': Pilot's last words before doomed Air India flight
The lead pilot in the Air India plane disaster said he would 'be back soon' as he left for work on the day flight 171 crashed, killing 260 people. 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.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
‘In your hands': Exchange moments before Air India crash
The captain of the doomed Air India flight that killed more than 200 people last month, gave control of the plane to his first officer before takeoff, according to sources citing cockpit recordings from the recovered black boxes. Initial findings from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) reported that fuel control switches to the engines were moved from the "run" to the "cut-off" position moments before impact. It also included an exchange in which one of the pilots asked the other why the fuel switches had been moved, without identifying the speakers. Two sources familiar with the matter claim that earlier in the recording, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal told First Officer Clive Kunder, 'the plane is in your hands,' Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports. It isn't unusual for a First Officer to fly the plane at various points, including take off. But US pilots who have read the initial findings from the AAIB into the crash were cited in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday as saying Mr Kunder would likely have had his hands full flying the plane when the fuel switches were turned off. That meant Captain Sabharwal, who was monitoring, would be more likely to have moved the switches. Captain Sabharwal was a veteran in the industry while Mr Kunder was in his early thirties and still building his career. Air India flight 171 bound for London's Gatwick Airport, crashed in Ahmedabad just 30 seconds into the flight, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and an additional 19 on the ground. India's aviation regulator ordered the country's airlines this week to investigate the locking feature on the fuel control switches of several Boeing models. Air India's inspection of the locking feature on the switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said. The order to investigate came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe. 'Over the weekend, our engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,' the airline's flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots. 'The inspections have been completed and no issues were found,' the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator's directives. It said all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone 'Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule', adding that the FCS was part of this module. India's AAIB said it was still 'too early to reach any definite conclusions'. It said the investigation's final report would come out with 'root causes and recommendations'. 'We urge the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,' it said in a statement. – With AFP
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- The Advertiser
Too soon to decide India crash cause, investigators say
India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." India's aircraft accident investigation body says it's too early to reach any definite conclusions on what led to the deadly Air India plane crash in June that killed 260 people. "We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process," Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) chief GVG Yugandhar said, adding the investigation is still not complete. The AAIB statement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that a cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the flight indicated the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. The newspaper cited people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence. The AAIB's preliminary report on the crash on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so". It did not identify who made those remarks. The two pilots in the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3403 hours, respectively. Kunder, who was flying the plane, asked Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, according to the Journal report. The newspaper did not say if there was any evidence showing Sabharwal did move the switches, beyond the verbal exchange it cited. But it quoted US pilots who have read the Indian authorities' report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliner's controls at that stage of the flight. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff. Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 200 metres, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the plane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But it was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. In an internal memo on Monday, Air India chief Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed, and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well."
