5 days ago
Air India pilot: ‘He was melancholic, but a hero to me'
Sumeet Sabharwal was either a 'sad sack' or a 'hero', depending on who you asked.
The 56-year-old veteran pilot of the doomed Air India flight did not drink, never swore, was a committed captain and a doting son to his elderly father.
But underneath his 'melancholic eyes', he was weighed down by the death of his mother, navigating life after separating from his wife and wanted to quit the airline to spend more time at home.
Before the crash in June, where 260 people died just after take-off in Ahmedabad, he said to a security guard at his apartment complex: 'Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon.'
Sabharwal joined Air India in 1994 and has logged over 8,000 hours of flying time. He flew a Boeing 777 until he trained up between 2014 and 2015 to fly the newer Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
Known among his peers for being calm under pressure, he had never been involved in any major incident in his career until June 12.
Neil Pais, 61, a former colleague of Sabharwal, said: 'He was one of the nicest people you could ever hope to fly with.
'He had absolutely no airs about himself, so humble, so respectful. Always 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. If there was an issue, he'd point it out, but always in the nicest possible way.'
