Latest news with #Sabharwal
Daily Tribune
an hour ago
- General
- Daily Tribune
Ahmedabad Air Disaster: 'Media Points Finger at Pilot'
On June 12, a catastrophic event shook the nation when Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed moments after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. The tragedy claimed the lives of 241 of the 242 passengers aboard and 19 individuals on the ground at a medical college hospital where the aircraft plummeted. From the outset, suspicion has swirled around the pilots as the cause of the disaster. Initial reports suggested that co-pilot Clive Kunther was responsible for the crash. However, in recent days, media narratives have shifted, pinning the blame on Captain Sumit Sabharwal. Speculation, fuelled by sensationalised reporting, claims that Captain Sabharwal, grieving the recent death of his mother, deliberately caused the crash as an act of suicide. These allegations, reportedly based on leaks from agencies such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which are assisting India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), were first carried by The Wall Street Journal. The story, marked by dramatic language, was picked up by The Daily Telegraph and subsequently amplified by Indian media outlets. Indian authorities, however, opted to retain control of the aircraft's black box rather than transfer it to the United States. The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has also categorically dismissed these media claims, emphasising that the investigation remains ongoing. This stance appears to reflect wider concerns among those closely monitoring the investigation, including within Boeing and Air India. Who, then, is Captain Sumit Sabharwal? At 54, this unmarried pilot resided with his elderly parents in Powai, Mumbai. His mother passed away recently, leaving behind his 97-yearold father, a former official with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Captain Sabharwal, whose elder sister resides in Delhi with her two children, both pilots, was reportedly preparing to retire to care for his ailing father full-time. Colleagues and friends describe him as a calm, respected individual who, even amidst personal grief, maintained a routine of taking walks with his elderly father. With extensive experience piloting aircraft such as the Airbus A310, Boeing 777 and the 787 Dreamliner, logging between 8,200 and 15,638 hours on the latter, Captain Sabharwal was a seasoned aviator. Yet, media narratives allege that this composed and dedicated professional resorted to suicide, driven by grief over his mother's death and the burden of caring for his aging father. How implausible does this story seem? This rush to judgment, introduced in reports by The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph, was echoed widely by Indian media over the past two days. Adding fuel to the fire, some commentators, including a pilot named Mohan Ranganathan, have publicly speculated about possible mental health factors, though no formal documentation or diagnosis has been cited in public records. Strikingly, few have questioned why such concerns were never formally documented. Instead, these claims risk shifting the narrative away from systemic or technical issues and toward a pilot who can no longer defend himself. It is worth noting that since 2019, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has faced documented technical and software issues. To attribute the crash of an aircraft, potentially experiencing unresolved maintenance issues, to a pilot's personal tragedy is not only convenient but also deeply troubling. The ease with which some media have embraced this theory, while giving little attention to the aircraft's mechanical record, is alarming. According to official reports, Air India Flight 171 crashed on June 12 at 1:39 PM Indian Standard Time, or 8:09 UTC, just 30 seconds after takeoff. At the moment of impact, the aircraft's maximum speed was recorded at 180 knots. Reports further indicate that the engine start switches were reactivated at 8:08:42 UTC, suggesting that within the brief 30-second window post-takeoff, the aircraft's engines were turned off and then restarted. The apparent cause? The fuel tank switches were found in the 'off' position. The flight's voice recorder captured a critical exchange: one pilot, upon discovering the issue, asked, 'Who turned this off?' to which the other responded, 'Not me.' This conversation, preserved in the retrieved black box, has fuelled a narrative, first raised by The Wall Street Journal and echoed by The Daily Telegraph and Indian media, that Captain Sumit Sabharwal deliberately switched off the fuel supply, causing the crash. The question remains, whom does this narrative serve? Let us now examine the flaws in this theory. Imagine driving a car at 80 kilometres per hour and suddenly shifting it into neutral without braking. The car would continue moving forward for some distance due to inertia, the natural tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion. The same principle applies to an aircraft. In the case of Air India Flight 171, the crash occurred at 1:39 PM IST, moments after the pilots' recorded exchange about the fuel switches. The switches were found off and promptly turned back on, indicating that the pilots noticed the issue when the engines lost the thrust needed to climb. Following standard procedure, they attempted to reboot the fuel switches at 8:08:42 UTC to restart the engines. Tragically, within the next 18 seconds, the aircraft plummeted to the ground. If the engines were restarted at 8:08:42 UTC, they must have been turned off, or become inoperative, prior to that moment. For an aircraft travelling at 180 knots, an immediate crash upon engine cutoff is implausible. Inertia should have allowed it to glide further before descending. The absence of such a glide suggests the fuel switches were turned off while the aircraft was still on the runway, causing the engines to fail shortly after takeoff. Like a kite with a snapped string, the plane briefly soared before crashing and bursting into flames. The pilots' exchange likely occurred during this chaotic sequence. Would a pilot intent on suicide attempt to restart the engines to save the aircraft? The notion seems absurd. Another critical point: the fuel switch in a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (registration VTANB), powered by two General Electric GEnx-1B engines, is not a simple electrical toggle like a light bulb. It is controlled by a sophisticated software system known as the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC). When a pilot flips the fuel switch, it sends a request, not a direct command, to the software, which evaluates the request based on operational conditions. In some cases, the system may even prompt the pilot for confirmation before cutting the fuel supply to the engines. These processes unfold in milliseconds. In essence, even if Captain Sabharwal had intended to sabotage the flight, it would have been extremely difficult to bypass the FADEC system to cut the fuel supply and bring down the aircraft. Moreover, the timeline of events suggests there was simply no time for such an act. Since 2019, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been repeatedly affected by software glitches, with Boeing issuing periodic service patches to address them, patches that have often been criticised as inadequate. Meanwhile, Air India faces allegations of negligence in maintaining this aircraft. Whether the reported technical issues, some of which Captain Sabharwal is said to have noted in the logbook, were addressed promptly, or whether the aircraft was overdue for servicing, remains under investigation. Yet, despite these unresolved questions, some media outlets have presented Captain Sabharwal as the primary cause, based on reports that remain unverified. My plea is simple: until the official investigation report is released, we must refrain from tarnishing the memory of a captain who lost his life in this tragedy. The allegations against Boeing and the persistent issues with the Dreamliner's systems could easily warrant another major article. However, for now, the focus must remain on seeking the truth, not perpetuating convenient narratives.
NDTV
2 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"Western Media Promoting Own Viewpoint": Aviation Minister On Air India Crash
New Delhi: Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has called for calm as investigations continue into the June 12 Air India plane crash in which 274 people, including 19 on the ground, were killed. "There are multiple theories (about the crash) floating... but let us respect the process of investigation," he said. "The AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is carrying out the investigation in a transparent manner... I have seen multiple articles, not only by Indian media, but also by Western media trying to promote their own viewpoint," he told the Lok Sabha Monday. "The way we (i.e., the government) are seeing the investigation is through facts. We want to stand by the truth. And that will only be revealed when the investigation is complete." The Aviation Minister's appeal in the Rajya Sabha follows multiple reports in the foreign press about what caused the crash, particularly after a preliminary report said the plane's two fuel control switches moved, within a second off each other, from the 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' positions. This would have starved the engines of power during the critical take-off phase, when the aircraft was only a few hundred feet above the ground and the pilots had limited time - 32 seconds from take-off to the crash, according to the AAIB report - to take corrective action. A final report - which should explain exactly what happened - has yet to be submitted. But multiple press reports have focused on this element of the preliminary inquiries and also a cockpit voice recording in which the pilots spoke about the switches having changed positions. A report by American publication the Wall Street Journal claimed the recording - the audio was never released - revealed the First Officer, i.e., Clive Kunder, asked Captain Sabharwal why he moved the switches. According to the WSJ Captain Sabharwal denied moving the toggles. These reports - which have been read in India and by the aviation community as suggesting the senior pilot of Air India flight AI 117 was responsible for the crash - have been rubbished. Last week the AAIB slammed international media for "selective", "unverified", and "irresponsible" reporting, and criticised the fomenting of "anxiety about safety of Indian airlines". In a brief but sharply-worded statement, the AAIB called out international media, and said, "Such actions are irresponsible... especially while the investigation is ongoing. We urge the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process." The reportage was also called out by the United States' National Transportation Safety Board, which is helping the AAIB in this matter. NTSB chief Jennifer Homendy called out some media reports - although she did not specify which ones - as "premature" and "speculative". The fuel supply switches on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner - which was the plane that crashed - are designed to be immobile unless specifically moved by a pilot, i.e., they are spring-loaded, and have to be lifted up and slotted into position. This is to avoid accidental movement. In the aftermath of the AAIB's initial report, domestic airlines operating Boeing jets were instructed to conduct checks on switches that regulate fuel supply to the engines. This was made mandatory for all India-registered Boeing planes, the Director-General of Civil Aviation said. Air India later said it had finished the checks and found "no issues".
Metro
2 days ago
- General
- Metro
Air India captain 'cut fuel to engines before crash'
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video New information leaked from the Air India disaster investigation suggests the captain switched off the engine fuel flow. Officials have been probing the black boxes of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner recovered from the crash site in Ahmedabad. An early assessment by US officials suggested the June 12 crash, which killed 260 people, was not caused by any problems with the passenger jet. This raised suspicions that the plane's fuel flow was switched off. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was leading the flight destined to London Gatwick, with first officer Clive Kunder, 28, in control just before the smash, a source has said. It comes after the first initial report left out which pilot said what. The audio allegedly reveals how the first officer was controlling the plane when he asked captain Sabharwal why he moved the fuel switches into a position that stops the fuel, a source told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity. The preliminary report showed that the two crucial fuel switches were in 'cutoff' mode instead of 'run,' causing the plane to lose power before plunging onto a hostel housing doctors and medical students. The early report by India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) did not say whether the switch was accidental or deliberate. But a pilots' association accused the initial report of trying to blame the captain and the first pilot without definitive proof. The AAIB has since urged the public and the media to 'refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,' adding that 'it is too early to reach any definite conclusions.' The pilots had only seconds to try to repair the fault and switch the fuel back on, but the plane began losing thrust at 650 feet and fell. Just hours before one of India's worst aviation disasters, the captain had reportedly told the security guard in his apartment complex to look after his elderly father who lived with him. The captain, who had over 15,600 hours of experience in the cockpit, said: 'Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video His colleagues have rallied around him to pay tribute. Sabharwal was 'one of the nicest people you could ever hope to fly with,' former colleague Neil Pais told The Telegraph. Captain Kapil Kohal described him as a 'hero' and a 'gentle soul.' His nickname was 'Sad Sack' because of his melancholic eyes, and he was deeply charismatic and always happy to help,' captain Kohal added. The doomed plane was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, one Canadian and seven Portuguese people. One passenger on board, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40 was the only survivor from the plane. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Air India crash investigators give update after recovering black box data
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mirror
Air India pilot's haunting final words before fateful flight that killed 260
A guard at Sumeet Sabharwal's home has revealed the pilot's haunting final words before he took off for the doomed Gatwick-bound flight that killed 260 people when it crashed The chilling final words of the captain of the doomed Air India flight - which crashed and killed 260 people - have been revealed. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was the senior pilot on the flight bound for London Gatwick when it plummeted just minutes after it took off on June 12. Sabharwal was known to be an experienced pilot with over 8,200 hours of flying time, but a preliminary report has now turned its attention to the veteran aviator. The bombshell report suggested two fuel switches were moved from "Run" to "Cutoff", starving the engine of fuel. Indian investigators revealed what worrying recordings from the cockpit caught before the plane crashed. The preliminary report said: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other: why did he cut off? The other pilot responded that he did not do so." Investigators said the fuel switches were switched off right after takeoff and the landing gear was not raised. While authorities are working to determine whether this was an accident or malicious, the senior pilot's haunting final words, before he left home for the doomed flight, have been revealed. Sabharwal reportedly spoke to a bodyguard at his apartment complex, where his elderly dad also lived, shortly before leaving for the airport on June 12. The lead pilot allegedly said: "Please take care of papa. I will be back soon." Lokhande, the guard, recalled what is now believed to be the pilot's final words at his home in Mumbai. He said: "I can't forget that last moment, when he ran his hand through his hair, like he always did, and said, 'How are you Mr Lokhande. Please, take care of papa, and I will be back soon." 'He smiled and went away. You'd never guess he carried any sadness inside.' This comes after Sabharwal's elderly father revealed his son made a heartbreaking promise just a week before the fatal flight. Sumeet's elderly father said the pilot promised to take a break from work so he could spend more time with his family. Indian politician Dilip Mama Lande, a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, had shared details of the heart-wrenching phone call. The politician said: "A few days ago, he promised to take a break to spend time with his father." The pilot's dad is believed to have been a former official at the India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, according to the Times of India.
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- General
- The Irish Sun
Air India pilot's haunting plea when he left home on day of deadly crash as probe ‘confirms he turned off fuel switches'
AIR INDIA'S captain made a haunting plea as he left home on the day of the deadly crash. Sumeet Sabharwal gave an eerie message to a security guard at his Mumbai apartment complex before 8 Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was the lead pilot of the doomed Air India flight 8 The plane seconds before disaster 8 A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, India Credit: Reuters 'Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon,' the 56-year-old pilot reportedly told guard Sunil Lokhande. It was the last thing he ever said at home before Lokhande, the security guard at Sabharwal's residence in Jal Vayu Vihar, Mumbai, recalled what can now be understood as the pilot's final goodbye. He told The Telegraph: 'I can't forget that last moment, when he ran his hand through his hair, like he always did, and said, 'How are you Mr Lokhande. Please, take care of papa, and I will be back soon.' Read more on Air India crash 'He smiled and went away. You'd never guess he carried any sadness inside.' Lokhande added: '[Sabharwal] would visit home for two or three days and take his father for an evening walk regularly. 'Buy vegetables and fruits. He would often share fruits with me and would give money to buy meals or tea.' Crash probe Now, investigators say the experienced pilot may have Most read in The Sun According to cockpit recordings, the co-pilot can be heard asking: 'Why did you cut off?' Sabharwal replied, apparently eerily calm: 'I didn't.' 'Human hand' HAD to be involved in Air India crash disaster, pilot says…as he reveals billions-to-one odds of tech fault But US investigators, reviewing flight data, say the The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plunged into a hotel housing medical students just 30 seconds after takeoff. A total of 241 passengers and crew plus 19 people on the ground were killed in the tragedy. And only Captain's personal struggles Three days before the crash, Sabharwal reportedly told his elderly dad, Pushkaraj, he was planning to resign from Air India and move home permanently to care for him. His former colleague Neil Pais told The Telegraph: 'He was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years. 'His father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.' Sabharwal had reportedly He had also separated from his wife and relocated from Dehli to Mumbai to be closer to his dad. 8 A cockpit view of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner shows the fuel switch; Annotations by The Sun Graphics 8 An image showing how the fuel cut off switches have to be deliberately 'unlocked' before being moved Veteran pilot under scrutiny Captain Sabharwal had logged over 15,000 flying hours and was known as a calm, capable flyer. He had never been involved in a major incident until Flight 171. But his mental health is now under review. Despite passing a Class I medical exam in September, The Telegraph reports that Indian investigators are probing claims he previously took leave for depression. Friends and colleagues described him as humble, gentle and intensely private. 'Human hand involved' Aviation experts say the switches used to cut off fuel are physically guarded and require deliberate manual action to move. There is no emergency scenario where both engines would be shut down after takeoff. Captain Steve Scheibner said: 'When you place both fuel cutoff switches to cut off, that will fuel-starve the engines and they'll both flame out. 'There is no universe where there's any procedure ever in the history of commercial flight where you place both fuel control switches to cut off, leave them there for 10 seconds, right after rotate.' He added there was a 8 Landing gear of the Air India plane crashed directly on the BJ Medical College Credit: Getty 8 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plummeted into a doctors' hostel 8 Clive Kunder was the co-pilot on the doomed flight Credit: Pixel8000 The seasoned pilot and respected aviation analyst, told Piers Morgan Uncensored: 'My take on it is that the aeroplane was operating exactly the way it was designed, I don't think there was anything wrong with this particular aircraft. 'Some things are plain and some things are clear, whether it was intentional, placing of the fuel control switches to cut off, or unintentional, that's two different things. 'But I really firmly believe that there had to be a human hand on both of those for them to go to cut off.' Investigation ongoing India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has released a US officials believe the evidence suggests deliberate human action. Some sources claim a criminal probe may be warranted if the crash had occurred on American soil. Air India says it is cooperating fully but declined to comment on the findings. 'We continue to mourn the loss,' a spokesperson said. 'Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB.' Key findings of Air India preliminary crash report Dual engine shutdown - fuel cutoff switches moved from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' Confusion between pilots - cockpit audio confirms one pilot asked 'why did you cut off', the other replied 'I didn't' RAT deployed - as seen in CCTV footage before the crash, the ram air turbine (RAT) which acts as a backup power source in case of emergencies had deployed Engine relight attempted - fuel switches were found returned to 'RUN' at crash site 32 seconds - the time the aircraft was airborne before it crashed Thrust levers mismatch - Thrust levers found at idle but black box data shows takeoff thrust was still engaged Fuel test pass - fuel was clean without any contamination Normal take-off set-up - Flaps and landing gear correctly configured No bird activity - clear skies, good visibility, light winds Pilot credentials clear - both medically fit and rested No sabotage detected - although FAA alerted over a known fuel switch vulnerability not checked by Air India Aircraft loading - the flight was within weight and balance limits
