Who were the 12 crew members killed in the Air India plane crash? From a captain about to retire to a travel influencer

Mint

20 hours ago

All passengers – except one – on board the Air India flight bound for London Gatwick Airport that crashed shortly after take-off from Gujarat's Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon have died, the airline confirmed.
There were 242 passengers and crew on board the plane, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. One passenger, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, miraculously survived the crash.
The 12-member crew of the plane was among the 241 persons who died in the tragic Air India Dreamliner crash.
The aircraft was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal with First Officer Clive Kunder. While Captain Sabharwal had 8,200 hours of flying experience, his copilot had 1,100 hours under his belt, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
Sixty-year-old Captain Sabharwal was the senior-most crew member on board the ill-fated flight. Sabharwal had been living in Jalvayu Vihar in Powai in Central Mumbai with his aging father. Captain Sabharwal was just a few months away from retirement, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Flight attendant Deepak Pathak was one of the crew members on the crashed flight. A resident of Badlapur in Thane district near Mumbai, Pathak had last spoken to his mother, saying "good morning", his sister said, according to news agency PTI.
Pathak worked as a cabin crew member with Air India for 11 years, his sister said. "He called our mother in the morning and said `good morning'. Though we were not able to speak often due to our busy schedules, my mother and I regularly talk about him, like where is he, has he returned home," she said.
Deepak is one of the five siblings and had got married four years ago.
Saineeta Chakravarty, 35, was one of the cabin crew members who were on board the Air India Dreamliner. Chakravarty lived in Santacruz west and had recently joined Air India after working with Go Air.
As friends and neighbours gathered at the house on Thursday after the crash news was flashed, Saineeta's mother was unable to accept the fate. "Please give me one day. Let her come home first," she said, as reported by Times of India.
Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma was among the 12 cabin crew members on board the flight. Her family shared the ordeal with the news agency PTI as they tried to get in touch with Sharma.
"We called her up several times after receiving the news but nobody picked up the calls. The internet on her phone is also still on. However, we stopped calling her around 6 pm fearing it would drain the battery," K Khenjita, a relative of Nganthoi, told the news agency.
Nganthoi is the middle child among three siblings. Her eldest sister works in a private schoo,l and her youngest sister is a student in Class 9, the news agency said.
Please give me one day. Let her come home first.
Among the victims was Roshni Rajendra Songhare, a member of the cabin crew and a travel influencer on Instagram.
Songhare's death was confirmed by Maharashtra MLA Ravindra Chavan. "We are profoundly saddened by the tragic demise of Ms. Roshni Songhare from Dombivli in the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad. As a dedicated flight crew member, her untimely loss is a heart-wrenching tragedy. May her soul attain eternal peace," stated the Maharashtra MLA on X.
Songhare, who has over 54,000 followers on Instagram, was a travel influencer, apart from working as flight attendant on Air India.