In Pics: Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's Last Rites, Grieving Family Bids Final Goodbye
The body of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, pilot of the Air India plane which crashed in Ahmedabad last week, was brought to Mumbai on Tuesday for his last rites. The casket carrying his body reached Mumbai in the morning and was then taken to his residence, located at Jal Vayu Vihar in Powai area.
Captain Sabharwal, aged 56, had logged over 8,200 hours of flying experience. He was set to retire early to take care of his ailing father, but his final flight ended in a tragedy.
After the prayer, the body was taken to Chakala electric crematorium for the final rites.
Since morning, over a thousand people visited Captain Sabharwal's residence to pay their respects.
The London-bound Air India flight AI-171 carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12. All but one on board the plane died. The ill-fated flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal along with First Officer Clive Kundar.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
‘A loud noise, fire and people crying for help': BJ Medical college students narrate their ordeal from the fateful afternoon
Jeel Vyas, Yash Pandav and Yash Tapaniya — all medical students and close friends — were among around 70 students who were having lunch in the dining hall on the first floor of one of the hostel buildings at BJ Medical College on June 12. Recalling the afternoon, Tapaniya says: 'We heard a loud noise of something that seemed like a big blast. We thought that gas bottles in the kitchen area of our mess might have exploded. Suddenly, a fire broke out and the entire room was filled with smoke. The visibility was poor and it was difficult for us to see what was happening. Before we could figure out anything, concrete chunks of the ceiling fell on my head and back. A wall near us collapsed soon after and a few students got trapped. We sensed that something big had happened.' 'I somehow managed to reach the stairs and come down. There was a body. There were people around us shouting and crying. I came out of the building, while one of us (Pandav) jumped from the first floor through a window. After coming out, we spotted the tail of the plane stuck outside the first floor of the building. It was then that we realised that it was a plane crash.' Tapaniya, a second-year MBBS student at the Ahmedabad college added. On Sunday, we three checked on each other to find that we were all safe. The three then returned to their respective residences in Surat's Katargam. A London-bound plane which took off from the Ahmedabad airport on June 12 crashed on the first floor of the hostel building. According to Tapaniya, the aircraft was shattered into three pieces — the 'front cone-shaped' part that went inside the building, the middle portion, and the tail that got stuck outside the building. He further said: 'I sustained injuries after the concrete chunk from the ceiling fell on my head and back. I was bleeding. People were finding it difficult to breathe due to dense smoke. The debris of the crashed plane were still gutted in fire. Due to the impact, a few gas bottles in the kitchen also exploded, making a huge noise. I came down alone, as I had lost both my friends. One of my seniors, Krish Patel, who is from Vapi, helped me get out of the building and then took me to the Civil Hospital, where I was admitted at 2pm. I lost my phone in the dining room. I borrowed his phone to call my father Nareshbhai and inform him about the incident. I told him not to worry, as I had sustained minor injuries and was already under treatment.' Tapaniya was discharged on the following day. His father reached the hospital but was not allowed to enter as the police had cordoned off the entire building, restricting public entry. Tapaniya had reached his hostel a day before the incident and called his father to say that he could accompany him home. Yash Tapaniya further added 'The first floor mess room contained around 80 people, including the kitchen staffers, medical students, and their families. After the accident, some students who had rushed out of the building reached their hostel rooms on bikes, brought mattresses and bed sheets, which were placed on the ground near the windows so that people who would jump could not get injured. Some of the students used the bedsheets to take the injured ones to the hospital for medical treatment.' Tapania was in shock, says his father, who runs an embroidery business in Surat. The father said, 'We boarded a train from Ahmedabad and reached Surat on Sunday evening. He narrated his ordeal and we consoled him. He is better now.' Pandav (19), a first-year MBBS student, said: 'We three got separated from one another. Everybody was scared and was searching for a way out of the building. In one of the corners of the hall, I saw a portion of the aircraft that was burning. There was dense smoke everywhere. I came near a small window and jumped from the first floor, and landed on the ground. Luckily, nothing happened to me. We all had lost our mobile phones. I went to my hostel room. Nobody was there. I called up my father to inform him that I was safe. I went to bed and slept throughout the evening and the entire night. My father turned up the next day and took me back to Surat.' All the three students are currently recovering from the shock they had gone into. The trio has decided to return to Ahmedabad and continue their studies. They are waiting for a call from their college. Nandlal Pandav, a Prajapati community leader from Surat, visited the residences of the three friends in Katargam and assured 'all possible help'.
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
I wasn't on Air India Flight 171, but I haven't stopped reliving the horror
Based on true eventsIt was 12 am when I got a call from my father, a very unlikely time for someone who is usually in bed by 11 pm.'Hello, your mother and sister's phones are still switched off. Have they landed?' a restless voice asked from the other end. 'It's raining in Mumbai, probably that's the reason for the delay,' I tried to pacify him, though I was equally worried about their well-being. 'Don't worry, they'll probably land any moment.'advertisementI was just about to check the flight status when my sister messaged: 'LANDED.'I let out a sigh of relief, called dad, told him they had landed, and went to incident I'm talking about is from June 16, just four days after Air India Flight 171 crashed in the Meghaninagar neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, killing 241 out of 242 passengers on hasn't been the sameIt's been just about six months, but the year has brought more bad news than feels like we've been moving from one bad dream to another, without even getting time to recoup from the trauma each incident leaves behind — be it the terrorist attack on unarmed tourists in Baisaran Valley, Kashmir, that killed 26 civilians, or the Air India crash that sent shivers down our weren't there when these incidents happened, and I'm sure many of us thanked our stars for that, but we've relived every moment of those horrific events, every single day, through social media and news coverage. And it's far from a good Air India crash has reignited my lingering fears as a flier.I know a neighbour who changed her Air India tickets to Dubai and made sure she booked a different airline. If that meant no refund, so be it.I've always been an anxious flier (the anxiety comes from the fear of a crash itself), and this felt like my worst nightmare come true. Once you're onboard, your life depends entirely on the pilot, and of course, on the aircraft, which we mostly assume is in perfect all, who would allow a faulty aircraft to fly, right? It's human life we're talking the allegations seem to suggest haunting storiesI wasn't on that fateful flight, but every story I read about the passengers onboard makes me feel closer to their will happen now that they're gone? For some, it was a journey that promised the joy of a new beginning; for others, just a reunion with loved ones. All of it, silenced in one even worse is thinking about their last must have happened? How did they react? Was it painful?These questions may sound insensitive, but they come from one quiet, persistent fear: if I were ever in that situation, what exactly would happen?After all, these were just regular passengers, just like you and me, who boarded a flight one fine afternoon, only to see everything come to an end in a few media makes it worseSocial media hasn't been helpful either. While several influencers are busy suggesting which flights to avoid (Airbus or Boeing), conspiracy theorists are sharing their own dissected versions of the there are astrologers, warning people not to fly on certain dates because of Mercury Retrograde. I don't usually believe in astrology, but this time, I gave in. And right now, I'm genuinely rethinking whether I should travel at all this the crash, there's been a steady stream of updates about flights being diverted, sometimes due to technical snags, sometimes bomb threats, and somehow, Air India seems to be at the centre of every bad news.A fear shared by manyadvertisementJust when I thought I was alone in feeling this way, the persistent dread, the intrusive what-ifs, I realised this isn't just a personal battle with fear. I'm not the only one avoiding booking tickets or googling 'safest airlines 2025' at 2 out, and you'll see it's not just a few nervous fliers grappling with post-crash jitters. The collective mental health toll of such tragedies runs deeper and wider than we like to admit.'When a crash of this scale happens, something so unprecedented in recent aviation history, it jolts people's sense of safety,' explains Dr Vishnu Gade, Consultant Psychiatrist at Arete Hospital. 'Even if you're not directly involved, the mind doesn't always make that distinction. You're still processing trauma, just second-hand (vicarious trauma).'According to Dr Gade, this isn't just a vague unease. What many of us are feeling can show up as a very real phobia, fear of flying (aviophobia), heightened anxiety, even panic attacks, especially when these events are followed obsessively through the news or social remedy, Dr Gade stresses, is the importance of support systems - family, friends, and yes, therapy if needed - especially if the anxiety lingers beyond a few weeks, starts affecting sleep, or disrupts daily something else that he said seemed true yet heartbreaking:'In another month, people will move on. That's the world we live in. But for some, especially those who were affected, even indirectly, the fear doesn't leave. It lingers quietly, in our choices, our habits, our hesitation to book that next ticket.'(Views expressed in this piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
'U.S.' Bunker Buster Bombs...': Israeli Journalist Reveals IDF's Big Plan; Khamenei's Nuclear Game
New Videos Show Students Jumping Off Hostel Balcony As Air India Plane Crashes Into Building A new video has surfaced showing students leaping from a building at a medical college in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where an Air India plane crashed on June 12. In the latest video, students are seen climbing over balcony railings and attempting to descend as flames engulf the lower floors of the BJ Medical College hostel, believed to have been caused by the impact of the crashing aircraft. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 242 people, crashed into the BJ Medical College complex shortly after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:39pm. Of the 242 people on board the London-bound flight, 241 lost their lives. Miraculously, one passenger survived. The crash also claimed the lives of 29 people on the ground, including five MBBS students.#ahmedabadplanecrash #airindiacrash #bjmedicalcollege #studentvideo #buildingfire #hostelfire #boeing787 #svpi #fatalcrash #planesurvivor #groundfatalities #mbbsstudents #planeimpact #flames #balconyjump #desperateescape #aviationtragedy #airindia171 #june12crash #ahmedabad #medicalcollege #toi #toibharat 10.4K views | 1 hour ago
